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Show Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009 Page 2 World&Nation Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.aggietownsquare.com ClarifyCorrect The policy of The Utah Statesman is to correct any error made as soon as possible. If you find something you would like clarified or find unfair, please contact the editor at statesmaneditor@aggiemail.usu.edu Celebs&People BOSTON (AP) – “Survivor” winner Richard Hatch says he’s the victim of a “witch hunt” by federal prosecutors. Hatch completed a tax evasion sentence earlier this month. He complained to NBC’s “Today” show Tuesday that he HATCH was taken from his sister’s apartment while wearing boxer shorts in August and held in solitary confinement for 30 days after granting TV interviews without permission. NewsBriefs October is new deadliest month KABUL (AP) – U.S. forces say eight American troops have been killed in multiple bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan. The deaths make October the deadliest month of the war for American troops since it began in 2001. The U.S. military says the eight deaths Tuesday occurred in “multiple, complex” bomb attacks in the south. One Afghan civilian was also killed, and several other troops were wounded and taken to a nearby medical facility. LateNiteHumor Troops already outnumber Taliban 12-1 BRUSSELS (AP) – There are already more than 100,000 international troops in Afghanistan working with 200,000 Afghan security forces and police. It adds up to a 121 numerical advantage over Taliban rebels, but it hasn’t led to anything close to victory. Now, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan is asking for tens of thousands more troops to stem the escalating insurgency, raising the question of how many more troops it would take to succeed. The commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, says the extra forces are needed to implement a new strategy that focuses on protecting civilians and depriving the militants of popular support in a country where tribal militias may be Taliban today and farmers tomorrow. The White House said Tuesday that President Barack Obama has nearly finished gathering information and advice on how to proceed in Afghanistan, where bombings killed eight more American troops. With October now the deadliest month for U.S. forces in the war, many experts question the need for more troops. “The U.S. and its allies already have ample numbers and firepower to annihilate the Taliban, if only the Taliban would cooperate by standing still and allowing us to bomb them to smithereens,” said Andrew Bacevich, a professor of international relations and history at Boston University, and one-time platoon leader in Vietnam. “But the insurgents are conducting the war in ways that do not play to (allied) strengths.” The Taliban rebels are estimated to number no more than AN AFGHAN RIOT police man places a tear gas bullet in to his rifle during a demonstration in Kabul, Afghanistan on Monday, Oct. 26. AP photo 25,000. Ljubomir Stojadinovic, a military analyst and guerrilla warfare expert from Serbia, said that although McChrystal’s reinforcements would lift the ratio to 20-1 or more, they would prove counterproductive. “It’s impossible to regain the initiative by introducing more foreign forces, which will only breed more resentment and more recruits for the enemy,” he said. “The Soviets tried the exact same thing in Afghanistan in the 1980s with disastrous results.” McChrystal’s defenders say the U.S. has learned from Soviets’ mistakes. At his instruction, NATO troops are increasingly abandoning heavyhanded tactics. “In the end this (conflict) cannot be solved by military means alone, and in that sense a precise figure of Taliban fighters is not the point,” said NATO spokesman James Appathurai. The U.S. says it’s already adjusting its strategy to shift the focus from hunting down and killing Taliban fighters to protecting civilians – in some cases allowing insurgent units to remain untouched if they are not deemed an imminent threat. McChrystal has also insisted that ground commanders use airpower only as a last resort and when they are absolutely sure civilians are not at risk. As a career Special Forces officer, McChrystal is likely to use small maneuverable units rather than large, heavily armed formations. Also, experts say guerrilla numbers are not the most important factor in a counterinsurgency campaign. Instead, the number of U.S. troops depends on more complex calculations, including the size and location of the population, and the extent of the training effort for the Afghan security forces. Appathurai said the goals of the Afghanistan strategy are key to determining how many forces are required. The goal is to have enough troops in populated areas to protect the citizenry and to provide the forces needed to train the Afghans. In addition, while there may be as many as 25,000 Taliban, it is not a monolithic group like an army, with a clear chain of command that has to be confronted soldier for soldier. Instead, it is a scattered and diverse mix of insurgents, some more ideologically motivated than others. There are currently about 104,000 international troops in Afghanistan, including about 68,000 Americans. Afghan security forces consist of 94,000 troops supported by a similar number of police, bringing the total Allied force to close to 300,000 members. The 12-1 ratio may be misleading because two-thirds of the Allied force is made up of Afghans, who lack the training and experience. The Taliban usually fight in small, cohesive units made up of friends and fellow clansmen. A more meaningful ratio, then, might be 4-1 or 5-1. Historically in guerrilla wars, security forces have usually had at least a 3-1 advantage. At the height of the U.S. ground involvement in South Vietnam in 1968, the 1.2 million American troops and their allies outnumbered the Communist guerrillas by about 4-1. French forces in the 194554 Indochina war numbered about 400,000 men, only a slight numerical advantage against the rebels. In a more recent campaign, Russia’s Chechen war in 19992000, Russian troops held a 4-1 advantage over the insurgents. Publicly, NATO and U.S. officials have been tightlipped about Taliban strength, arguing the guerrillas, split into a number of semiautonomous factions, regularly slip in and out of Afghanistan from Pakistan – making numbers a matter of guesswork. But several officers at NATO headquarters in Brussels say the alliance does have reasonably accurate estimates of the number of enemy combatants its troops are facing in Afghanistan. “The internal figure used for planning purposes is 20,000 fighters, with several more thousand auxiliaries – mainly members of tribal militias, clans, and semi-criminal gangs,” said a senior officer based at NATO headquarters in Brussels. He asked not to be identified under standing regulations. David Letterman, August 20, 2009 – Top 10 Northwest Airlines Pilot Excuses. Obama putting $3.4B toward a smart power grid 10. “Bunch of fat guys seated on right side of plane made us vector east.” 9. “We get paid by the hour.” 8. “MapQuest always takes you the long way, am I right, people?” 7. “Tired of that show-off Sullenberger getting all the attention.” 6. “You try steering one of those airplanes after eight or nine cocktails.” 5. “Wanted to catch end of inflight movie.” 4. “Activating autopilot and making occasional PA announcements is exhausting.” 3. “According to our map, we only missed target by half an inch.” 2. “For a change, decided to send luggage to the right city and lose the passengers.” 1. “Thought we saw Balloon Boy.” ARCADIA, Fla. (AP) – President Barack Obama made a pitch for renewable energy Tuesday, announcing $3.4 billion in government support for 100 projects aimed at modernizing the nation’s power grid. Touring a field of solar energy panels in west-central Florida, the president urged greater use of several technologies to make America’s power transmission system more efficient and better suited to the digital age. The projects include installing “smart” electric meters in homes, automating utility substations, and installing thousands of new digital transformers and grid sensors. “There’s something big happening in America in terms of creating a clean-energy economy,” Obama said, although he added there is much more to be done. He likened the effort to the ambitious development of the national highway system 50 years ago. He said modernization would lead to a “smarter, stronger and more secure electric grid.” Under muggy skies, Obama toured the DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center, which is designed to generate enough energy for about 3,000 residential customers of the utility FPL. It is the nation’s largest photovoltaic electricity facility. Obama said a modern grid could give consumers better control over their electricity usage and costs, and spur development of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. The $3.4 billion in grants from the government’s January economic stimulus program will be matched by $4.7 billion in private investments. The smallest grant will be $400,000 and the largest $200 million. “We have a very antiquated (electric grid) system in our country,” Carol Browner, assistant to the president for energy and climate change, told reporters. “The current system is outdated, it’s dilapidated.” Matt Rogers, the Energy Department official involved in the program, said the 100 projects were selected from 400 proposed. The money will be distributed over the next two months and the work is expected to be done over the next one to three years, he said. Even as Obama pitched more efficient and renewable energy use, his trip to Arcadia made it clear that old habits and dependencies die hard. He arrived in a motorcade of gas-guzzling SUVs. While waiting for the motorcade to get started, several vans kept their engines running to provide air conditioning for occupants escaping a hot Florida sun. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has been at odds with Obama over health care, energy and other matters, praised the clean-energy initiative. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA tours the DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center in Arcadia, Fla., Tuesday, Oct. 27 . AP photo Come in Aggies and eat with us! open ALL NIGHT HOWL! of the (October 31st) 20% off during all of November with Student ID |