17,000 More Troops Afghanistan

So yesterday when passing the stimulas bill Obama announced more troops are going over seas. What's his exit strategy, how long will they be there, what's is his goals, when will we know his goals are met. etc.... I did not here any of these concerns addressed when he announced his troop build up.

Obama: Troops alone cannot win in Afghanistan - CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/18/obama.afghanistan.canada/index.html)

So yesterday when passing the stimulas bill Obama announced more troops are going over seas. What's his exit strategy, how long will they be there, what's is his goals, when will we know his goals are met. etc.... I did not here any of these concerns addressed when he announced his troop build up.

Obama: Troops alone cannot win in Afghanistan - CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/18/obama.afghanistan.canada/index.html)
Don't you know those things only matter when Bush does it?

But anyway this is one of the few things I actually agree with Obama on.

Don't you know those things only matter when Bush does it?

But anyway this is one of the few things I actually agree with Obama on.
I do to but I'm having fun with his lack of details.

There seems to be this stupid game going on right now of comparing everything back to Bush and it just seems so childish and unproductive to me. It's almost like a 5 year old whining to his Mom that Billy got away with something so why can't he. Is it possible to just talk about the issues at hand instead of getting into this ridiculous game of finger pointing?

Don't you know those things only matter when Bush does it?

But anyway this is one of the few things I actually agree with Obama on.
i voted for Obama, but i disagree with this. im trying to figure out what exactly the United States is trying to accomplish?

Thankfully our new President isn't as petty as many of the people who voted for him, and believes that the best way to right any previous wrongs is not to look back but move forward. The Democrats have wanted their guy in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for nearly a decade now. "Once we get our guy in the White House, things will change." Well they're not going to change if all you want to do is harp on the past. Were there problems with the Bush administration? Of course. Just like there were with Clinton, H.W. Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Eisenhower, Truman, and so on. And I know, those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it, or whatever the saying is. I don't think it's a matter of Obama and his administration ignoring the past, it's a matter of not dwelling on it.

(this could just as easily go in the silly senate investigation thread as well).

i voted for Obama, but i disagree with this. im trying to figure out what exactly the United States is trying to accomplish?

Hadn't he been saying for months that we needed to redirect troops to Afghanistan to fight the insurgents and find Bin Laden?

There seems to be this stupid game going on right now of comparing everything back to Bush and it just seems so childish and unproductive to me. It's almost like a 5 year old whining to his Mom that Billy got away with something so why can't he. Is it possible to just talk about the issues at hand instead of getting into this ridiculous game of finger pointing?
I was joking to a point but why demand time lines and dates and such from one president but not another. Isn't that a double standard? I just remember all the fuss when we had the troop build up in Iraq a year or so ago and isn't that what we are doing in Afghanistan?

I was joking to a point but why demand time lines and dates and such from one president but not another. Isn't that a double standard? I just remember all the fuss when we had the troop build up in Iraq a year or so ago and isn't that what we are doing in Afghanistan?

Nobody demanded time lines until Iraq was dragging out and we appeared to be spinning our wheels. If the same thing ends up happening in Afghanistan we can be pretty sure people will want the same kind of answers.

Nobody demanded time lines until Iraq was dragging out and we appeared to be spinning our wheels. If the same thing ends up happening in Afghanistan we can be pretty sure people will want the same kind of answers.

DefenseLink News Transcript: Secretary Rumsfeld Remarks on ABC "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" (http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=2185)
This interview was 2wks after the start of the war, I did a very quick google so there are probably others. The question of "How long" is always asked when troops are put into danger zones, although the answer is usually more to serve political needs than reality.

ANNOUNCER: This morning, as the war enters its second week, new questions about how long it might last.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: However long it takes. That's the answer to your question, and that's what you've got to know.

MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you think we'll still be fighting in Iraq six months from now?

SEC. RUMSFELD: Oh, goodness, you know, I've never -- we've never had a timetable. We've always said it could be days, weeks, or months and we don't know.

I showed both the question - to prove that it was asked from the start, and the answer, to show that Pres. Obama could answer as well without giving specifics.