Obama’s Shameful Afghanistan Strategy
ByKeeping up with President Obama’s Afghanistan strategy is confusing, to say the least. The latest news is a plan to work with the Taliban, while using only enough troops to keep al Qaeda at bay.
President Obama is inclined to send only as many more U.S. troops to Afghanistan as are needed to keep Al Qaeda at bay, a senior administration official said.The official also added that the president is prepared to accept some Taliban involvement in Afghanistan’s political future, reiterating what Obama said in March.
The assessment comes from an official who has been involved in the president’s discussions with his war council about Afghanistan strategy.
Aides say the president’s final decision on Afghanistan strategy and troop levels is still at least two weeks away, but the emerging thinking suggests he would be unlikely to favor a large military ramp-up of the kind being advocated by his top commander in Afghanistan.
Recognizing the U.S. can neither win in Afghanistan nor succeed more broadly against Al Qaeda without Pakistan’s cooperation, Obama’s war council is weighing a new role for Pakistan in the 8-year-old struggle in the region.
Obama’s national security team marked the war’s eighth anniversary on Wednesday with a three-hour session in a secure room in the White House basement. The focus on Pakistan, the suspected hiding place of Usama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda terrorists as well as Taliban leaders, could provide a hint into the president’s leanings.
Members of the president’s national security team argued that the Taliban in Afghanistan do not pose a direct threat to the U.S., officials told The New York Times. It was unclear if everyone in the war council accepted the premise.
It’s official, the president and his team are insane. Didn’t they hear the news that the Taliban receives support from Iran for operations against the US and coalition forces? They’re setting us up for defeat. If this is the strategy we may as well bring all of our troops home. Why sacrifice one more life for the sake of defeat?
It wasn’t so long ago that Obama was talking the tough talk, saying he would do what it takes to win in Afghanistan. He’s made an abrupt about face. Could it be that the surprise price tag for the plan he endorsed would get in the way of his domestic agenda? He had no idea the cost of what he campaigned for. Had he spent more time doing his job as a US Senator rather than running for president perhaps he would have known what he was getting himself in to.
That’s the problem with Obama. He’s a know it all. Until Inauguration Day he could use words and rhetoric and the world was his oyster. He didn’t have to make decisions. He voted present. He believes the hype about himself – that he’s so gifted and wise he instinctively knows how to win a war, or transform the heatlh care of 300 million people, or change how the world views the United States. He’s now faced with the fact that saying something doesn’t make it so.
He’s playing politics with peoples lives and it’s absolutely disgusting. This is what we get for electing a naive radical who is clueless about the real world. We’ll see if he grows up during his term as president. If the past 9 months is a guide I won’t be holding my breath.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Why havent we capture UBL?
To hear Obama in the primaries and the general election just elect him and he will have Al Queida whipped and UBL behind bars in weeks if not a couple months.
I say pull out…….Alinsky……..if we say stay…they will yell pull out….if we yell pull out they will say no stay.