Despite previous reports, it seems that the future of U.S. policy in Afghanistan is far from set:
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, a senior administration official said Wednesday.
Obama still is close to announcing his revamped war strategy, most likely shortly after he returns from a trip to Asia that ends on Nov. 19.
The president raised questions at a war council meeting on Wednesday, however, that could alter the dynamic of both how many additional troops are sent to Afghanistan and what the timeline would be for their presence in the war zone, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss Obama’s thinking.
The president is considering options that include adding 30,000 or more U.S. troops to take on the Taliban in major areas of Afghanistan and to buy time for the Afghan government’s small and ill-equipped fighting forces to take over. The other three options on the table are ranges of troop increases, from a relatively small addition of forces to the roughly 40,000 that the top U.S. general in Afghanistan prefers, according to military and other officials.
The main sticking points appear to be timelines and mounting questions about the credibility of the Afghan government.
Administration officials said Wednesday that Obama wants to make clear that the U.S. commitment in Afghanistan is not open-ended.
Well, that last part is certainly the right place to start.
Many will accuse the President of “dithering” here, but I’m still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. He’s making a decision that will have implications not only for his Presidency, but also for the course of American foreign policy over the coming decade as well as the course of the War On Terror and America’s relationship with the Middle East.
With that much at stake, I much prefer a President who gives some consideration to the matter to one who calls himself “the decider” and engages in a policy without bothering to even listen to contrary points of view.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:19 am
One can have a blind spot for Jimmy Obama, I mean Barack Carter, on this issue if one wants withdrawal.
But to any neutral observer who has been paying attention, there has been no materially new or different information for months — indeed nothing new beyond what was expected or reasonably foreseeable when Obama announced the long-term strategy last spring. Did Obama suddenly learn that timing and politics are issues? Of course, not. What’s driving this is the man; this is a President who voted present hundreds of times in the Illinois legislature. Let’s stash the Bush strawman and start dealing with reality of the empty vessel who was elected President on his own merits.
What’s next, applauding the measured one for calling a jobs summit when he is on the way to accumulating trillions of dollars in debt?
November 12th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
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