“The 30,000 additional troops that I am announcing tonight will deploy in the first part of 2010 – the fastest pace possible – so that they can target the insurgency and secure key population centers. They will increase our ability to train competent Afghan Security Forces, and to partner with them so that more Afghans can get into the fight. And they will help create the conditions for the United States to transfer responsibility to the Afghans.”
“Because this is an international effort, I have asked that our commitment be joined by contributions from our allies. Some have already provided additional troops, and we are confident that there will be further contributions in the days and weeks ahead. Our friends have fought and bled and died alongside us in Afghanistan. Now, we must come together to end this war successfully. For what’s at stake is not simply a test of NATO’s credibility – what’s at stake is the security of our Allies, and the common security of the world.”
“Taken together, these additional American and international troops will allow us to accelerate handing over responsibility to Afghan forces, and allow us to begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011. Just as we have done in Iraq, we will execute this transition responsibly, taking into account conditions on the ground. We will continue to advise and assist Afghanistan’s Security Forces to ensure that they can succeed over the long haul. But it will be clear to the Afghan government – and, more importantly, to the Afghan people – that they will ultimately be responsible for their own country.”
17 comments:
I don't know why Americans think it is a good idea to be involved in civil wars.
Bin Laden's boys have moved into Pakistan and this has evolved into more of a tribal civil war.
Our allies in the country are just as uncivilized as the Taliban, and the appointed leader's brother is reportedly involved in smuggling heroin.
At a time when we are running huge deficits, dealing with high unemployment, and crippling state budget deficits, I wonder if it is advisable to escalate a conflict in a country that has already dealt harsh blows to the other two most powerful countries of their time.
Whatever happens, the President officially owns this after this decision. There will be no blaming Bush for this, in 2012.
I like the idea of a war tax to start paying for all this baloney....no draft, no sacrifice, all put on credit..however, I support putting the war tax only on registered voting Republicans since they are the ones that got us into this mess overseas.
Not really fair, both wars were authorized with both democratic and republican support. If there is to be a war tax, we all pay it. American's have no political parties in a fox hole.
Jacob, I agree with you on all points. Afghanistan is not winnable, though many have tried. It isn't a 'country' as we think of the term, it is a collection of tribes that have been at war for centuries. Why do we have such an ego that we think we can fix it in a few years?
Anon 823, stop with the revisionist history.
The Banker
Banker, there is nothing revisionist about the truth.
What got us ito the mess in Afghanistan was 9/11, not Republicans or DEmocrats. If we do nothing more than weep over the attack the enemy will just keep on coming over our borders.
McChrystal asked for 60,000 trops witha bare minimum of 40,000. He got 35,000.
Obama put a time line on a war, never good. He never discussed a ictory only stabilty and withdrawal. He never mentioned fighting the Taliban, just Al Queda.
He actually laid out no real plan at all.He will send them in 6 months and bring them home in 18 months. (one tour of duty)
Sorry Bernie he did not give his generals what they asked for and he spent so much time trying to decide what to do that our casualities went way up during those 3 months...Morale was so low that suicide in country went up by 15%,
He can play word games with the general public, but you cannot fool the troops, they know who and what they are dealing with.
THanks Obama! You made the most politically correct and strategically inane plan pssible. Why am I not surpised by that?
He just put a 50 pound weight around his neck . We don`t belong there. What a waste of young people and resources. Why don`t we only send men and women to war who are 60 or over ?
It's not revisionist to note that the Bush administration felt it necessary to divert attention and might from Afghanistan to Iraq leaving a tenuous situation for the next President. Bush completely failed in his policy.
Amen to 1131 and young people are still dying in Iraq. Someone I know died there last week. He was 26. I hope Bush is comfy in his restricted gated community doing his motivational speeches while young people are still dying.
Is this the Fox News forum. Hey how about Glenn Beck. He said what all of us believe, "who doies the President think he is telling the Generals what to do".
Thank God we real Americans have Fox News and American Blogs like this one.
I doubt his generals advised him to issue our withdrawal timetable. The bad guys can now circle the date and wait us out in their caves in their pajamas. And we know from history that they surely will. The next guy to die in Afghanistan today will have done so for no good reason - given our president's stated intention to play whack-a-mole for a time and then bug out. We can't be half pregnant. We're not there to win anything - if we ever were or thought we could. Every life after last night is a waste. We should withdrawal every single soul today. This is LBJ all over again.
I maybe a liberal but I am not a pacifist. The man I admire most in the 20th Century was certainly no pacifist. FDR seemed to understand a principle that no politician understood in American politics for the rest of the 20th century moving into the 21st century. War is an all in Poker move. You do not place small bets with war. You commit every resource you have, economically, diplomatically, and militarily, and you do not stop to the enemy is defeated by either death or surrender.
Every facet of society commits itself to the effort. It is probably why the Empire of Japan, Nazi Germany, and Fascist Italy fell in 4 years and we spent as much lives and treasure in Vietnam and Afghanistan for longer periods with poor results.
Bernie,
The speech was a disaster, the enemy now understands our president lacks the will to win this war.
Scott Armstrong
FDR brutally prosecuted his war and had enemy combatants secretly tried and executed on US soil within 30 days of conviction. He was backed by a SCOTUS decision.
We are not the same country. Our president is not FDR. He is very small. He is no leader. His speech was an international embarrassment; perhaps the weakest foreign policy speech ever delivered by a US president.
More of our best and brightest heading for the meat grinder of war. I voted for him and now I have some doubts about his ideas and direction here. This is the Bush agenda with a supposed end game. Does our boss have a crystal ball? Insanity..more lives and money down the crapper. This is not our war. At least burn the poppy fields!
Giving a date for beginning to withdraw was a terrible mistake.
What motivation does an Afghani have to side with us when they know we'll be leaving soon?
The Taliban will still be there, unless we eliminate them. That's not likely, given that we'll be fighting with far fewer troops than the generals on the ground say we needed (25% less) and a shorter time frame to fight the enemy (thanks to Obama's "dithering").
Obama is the greatest!
Smartest POTUS ever!!!
:)
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