Pentagon Delays Troop Request

On Tuesday, September 22, 2009, I read the article, "Pentagon delays Troop Request", in "The Wall Street Journal." The phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words", rings a bell to everyone here. The picture on the front cover depicts a state funeral at Rome's St. Paul's Basilica, with thousands gathered to honor six Italian soldiers who were killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul last week. The picture illustrates a 7-year-old boy, Martin Fortunato, blowing a kiss to his father's coffin, Captain Antonio Fortunato, one of the six dead. This is the worst attack the Italian forces have experienced in this 8-year-old war. Ironically, the article and the image are not directly related to one another. With the exception that various countries are now grieving for fallen soldiers. I learned more about this event and the identification of the boy from the "Los Angeles Times" website in the world section. Sadly, the United States has lost over 2,000 soldiers and counting in this war, yet the citizens of Italy want some of their troops home by Christmas. Yochi Dreazen and Peter Spiegel authors of "Pentagon Delays Troop Request" wrote a lead that would grab the attention of any American. Why would the Pentagon tells its top commander in Afghanistan to delay submitting his request for additional troops? Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has laid out several options, one seeking 40,000 reinforcements pushing the U.S. presences to 100,000 for the first time in Afghanistan. Gen. McChrystal feels that acting now on the Taliban is crucial and if the troops wait defeating them may no longer be possible. Ultimately President Obama has postponed his decision to send additional troops. During the Afghan presidential election last month, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, was accused of scandal which may take months to be resolved. Meanwhile there has been an increase in casualties among U.S. and allied soldiers. Rep. John Boener, the House Republican leader said, "It's time for the president to clarify where he stands on the strategy he has articulated, because the longer we wait, the more we put our troops at risk."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-italy22-2009sep22,0,7867926.story