Daily Archives: Oct. 28, 2009

Does adding more troops make sense?

Oct. 28, 200912:46 p.m.

afghanistanTwo New York Times columnists have offered thoughtful cases against giving Gen. Stanley McChrystal the extra troops he wants in Afghanistan.
Arguing that digging deeper in Afghanistan will weaken the United States, Thomas Friedman wrote: “We simply do not have the Afghan partners, the NATO allies, the domestic support, the financial resources or the national interests to justify an enlarged and prolonged nation-building effort in Afghanistan.”
Suggesting there are better uses for U.S. dollars right now than “inflaming Pashtun nationalism,” Nicholas Kristof doubts more troops will do the trick. He wrote: “We have been fighting in Afghanistan for twice as long as we fought in World War II, with a current price tag estimated to be more than $60 billion a year. Standard counterinsurgency ratios of troops to civilians suggest we would need 650,000 troops (including Afghans) to pacify the country. So will adding 40,000 more to the 68,000 already there make a difference to justify the additional annual cost of $10 billion to $40 billion, especially since they may aggravate the perception of Americans as occupiers?”

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under President Obama | Comments

Pelosi one of best ever?

Oct. 28, 20096:03 a.m.

pelosimuglookingleftIf President Obama is disappointed in his point-woman in the House, he wasn’t showing it Monday at a Democratic fundraiser in Miami Beach. “I don’t think people quite understand. Nancy Pelosi is not simply the first woman speaker of the House,” he told the crowd. “I think she’s going to go down as one of the greatest speakers of all time. And she’s very nice and she’s very friendly, but, boy, she is tough. And that’s what you need when you’re putting up with all the criticism and the carping and the griping — and that’s from the Democrats. I mean, you should see what she has to put up with — from the Republicans. So I could not have a better partner in trying to move the country than Nancy Pelosi.”

By Rhonda Holman | Filed under Congress, President Obama | Comments

Open thread 10/28

Oct. 28, 20096:02 a.m.

thread4

By Rhonda Holman | Filed under Open thread | Comments

Roberts doesn’t have Sebelius’ ear on reform

Oct. 28, 20096:01 a.m.

robertsmugAs a member of the two U.S. Senate committees tasked with crafting health reform bills, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., has played the critic more than the architect, objecting noisily on cost and other grounds. That’s probably why he hasn’t been a go-to guy for reform champion and former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, the Democrat now leading President Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services. “Even though we know each other very well, she knows how I feel about how health reform, so she’s trying to go where she can get votes,” Roberts told the Kansas Health Institute News Service. “I would welcome — if she had the time — at least an hour discussion to go over these facts (about health reform) with the secretary. I can’t imagine if she were still in her previous role that she wouldn’t be jumping up and down about all this.” Perhaps, but Gov. Mark Parkinson has strongly advocated reform.

By Rhonda Holman | Filed under Health and safety, Kansas delegation | Comments

One job no Democrat wants?

Oct. 28, 20096:00 a.m.

dirtyjobsMarveling that 15 million Americans are out of work yet the Kansas Democratic Party can’t find one candidate for governor, Topeka Capital-Journal columnist Ric Anderson quipped: “Pretty soon, that guy from ‘Dirty Jobs’ is going to show up. Talk about an opportunity hardly anybody wants to touch.”

By Rhonda Holman | Filed under Kansas government | Comments