McCaffrey: Afghanistan Surge Will Kill or Wound 500 Soldiers by Summer

Let's hope McCaffrey is wrong.

Americans should prepare to accept hundreds of U.S. casualties each month in Afghanistan during spring offensives with enemy forces.

The dire forecast was made by retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, an adjunct professor of international affairs at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, in a periodic assessment of political and security issues he has conducted in the war zone since 2003.

“What I want to do is signal that this thing is going to be $5 billion to $10 billion a month and 300 to 500 killed and wounded a month by next summer. That’s what we probably should expect. And that’s light casualties,” said McCaffrey, who is also president of his own consulting firm in Arlington, Va., and has conducted numerous trips to the war zones to assess the political and military challenges at hand.

As of Dec. 20, there had been 305 U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan in 2009, the large majority of those due to hostile action. The number of wounded as of the same date for 2009 was 2,102, with more than half of those unable to return to duty. Army Times

Ayers Calls Afghanistan Surge Colossal Mistake

You remember Ayers, Obama's best bud. Ayers is far, far left and doesn't support any war. But he doesn't mind blowing up things to make a point. In an ideal world, I'd like to be a total peacenik but that's not reality. Ayers sort of proves that.

Swamp: Ayers had this to say about President Barack Obama committing an additional 17,000 troops to Afghanistan: "It's a mistake. It's a colossal mistake. And, you know, we've seen this happen before, Alan. We've seen a hopeful presidency, Lyndon Johnson's presidency, burn up in the furnace of war."

"I fear that this brilliant young man, this hopeful new administration, could easily burn their prospect of a great presidency in the war in Afghanistan or elsewhere,'' Ayers says in the interview airing at 9 pm EST on FOX's Hannity.

And Ayers had this to say about his own days in anti-Vietnam War protests, the group he cofounded sometimes making its point with bombs: read more