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Contrary to what one of the guests asserted during the course of the interview, when American mercenary forces ('private contractors') are counted, the United States has considerably more people in Afghanistan than the Soviets ever did.

I am one of those who believe we abandoned the Afghan people to fight George Bush's war in Iraq. Also abandoned was a mission to build Afghanistan's infrastructure, restore its schools, and facilitate a process of economic independence.

Mr. Dreazen describes how negative Gen. McKristal appears to be. How can he be otherwise? At the same time, his 60 day evaluation of the war effort emphasized the vital importance of rebuilding relations with the Afghan people, in the form of grassroots protection and economic support. Hearts are won when people are able to protect and provide for their families. Perhaps that's realism, not negativity.
During the campaign how many times did Barak Obama say that the process would be long and difficult? This is not just a case of the Unite States packing up its toys to go play in another sandbox. As a nation, do we really have the luxury of abdicating our responsibility to repair the mistakes of the past.

Remember Kerry stressing the importance of political corrections in Afghanistan? Obama, I recall, also placed equal emphasis if not more on political strategies, as opposed to military.

Does this demonstrate that the military hawks ultimately have more sway?

The previous caller thinks we can't pull out of Afghanistan because of what the rest of the world would think of us?! How about because of what would happen to the people living there if we left a power vacuum? Yes, there's corruption going on & conditions aren't good, but it would be worse if we just up & left it to the Taliban & the warlords. Does the caller really think this country's *reputation* is more important than Afghan *lives*?

Should go to every country around the world where there is a "brush fire" that is a threat to our security?

For instance, how are Mexican drug gangs affecting the security of this country? Are they doing more damage to the U.S.? Aren't they similar to the Taliban?

Two points:

1. The Afghan war is a NATO effort, not just an American one. The decision is not solely ours to make. Our allies have sacrificed considerably there as well, and have a right to participate in the decisions about the future of the war and what is at stake.

2. The Obama administration surely must know that they would be crucified in the media if they led a withdrawal from Afghanistan and then ANY sort of terrorist attack occurred to Americans anywhere. Justified or not, the withdrawal would be cited as enabling the attack.

the lesson of Afghanistan is that we left them in the 80's after the soviet pulled out!

"cut and run" was a great election year slogan. we should have got out of there after the first year, like a hit and run drunk driver.

That's what we were as a country, drunk with grief and rage. we all knew Bush was an alcoholic and america still supported him, allowing him to go into war.

silly.

How can such bright people be so ignorant of history?
The U.S. cannot CHANGE a country. It's never worked and young service men and women and innocent Afghans are dying. When will it end? I support Obama and I voted for him, but he sounds like Bush. Where is the "CHANGE" I believed in? What a sickening joke.

"War of necessity" is the most idiotic Pentagon-speak garbage I've heard since the days of Rummy and his merry band of war criminals. yes, it's necessary for Blackwater, Halliburton et al.

I can't believe this is 2009.

On the issue of victims inflating figures for casualties of US bombing. Hell, NO AMERICAN EVER MISREPRESENTED FACTS ABOUT A WAR!

To this day, the US government and most US media understate the well-confirmed figures of deaths from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (They do so by consistently omitting deaths from radiation poisoning.)

The US still understates Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian losses from US atrocities during the Vietnam War.

The Soviets *understated* their own losses in World War 2 because they were SO HORRENDOUS that they feared making people feel greater despair than they already did.

Finally, isn't it interesting that Americans so quickly dismiss victims' claims in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. When someone like David Irving does this regarding the Holocaust, it is rightly decried as revisionist and anti-Semitic.

The determination of Americans to dismiss Afghan or Iraqi claims is RACIST.

Regarding the number of contractors: a 9/1/09 Nyt article states: "As of March this year, contractors made up 57 percent of the Pentagon’s force in Afghanistan, and if the figure is averaged over the past two years, it is 65 percent, according to the report by the Congressional Research Service."