Obama says tough decisions soon on Iraq, Afghan wars

[UpInArms]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - The United States must make tough decisions soon about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Barack Obama said on Wednesday after receiving his first briefing from the heads of the U.S. armed forces.

Obama, who is weighing accelerating the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and boosting U.S. forces in Afghanistan, was speaking after a nearly two-hour meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon.

"We are going to have some difficult decisions that we are going to have to make, surrounding Iraq and Afghanistan most immediately," the president said.

Obama will make a statement "relatively shortly" on the speed of troop withdrawals from Iraq and on overhauling the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told a news conference earlier.

The Pentagon meeting included little discussion of troop levels or movements of U.S. forces in either Afghanistan or Iraq, said a U.S. defense official, who asked not to be named.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN2854523520090129?sp=true

[mike_c]

1. please let that mean that he intends to end BOTH crimes against humanity...

...with all possible speed!

[az chela]

2. Gates said the other day we will be in Afghanistan

til 2014

[slipslidingaway]

3. Gates recently said they need another 70 billion for these wars

it sounds like such a small amount of money these days.

[defendandprotect]

4. Unfortunately, Obama is not telling this sad story to the Pentagon . ..

the Military Industrial Intelligence Complex ---

so presume the bad news is for the public.

Meanwhile, it certainly wouldn't be considered a "tough decision" to hear that

the wars were over.

Which is what should happen.

[laststeamtrain]

5. McClatchy:Obama may not ask allies for more combat troops in Afghanistan

Obama may not ask allies for more combat troops in Afghanistan

By Jonathan S. Landay and Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy Newspapers Wed Jan 28, 8:25 pm ET

WASHINGTON — With U.S. allies likely to rebuff requests to send more combat troops to Afghanistan , many Pentagon officials want President Barack Obama to shift U.S. policy and seek NATO help only in other areas such as police training and support for democratization, defense officials said.

Obama called for more NATO combat troops while he was campaigning for the presidency. But the officials said that NATO allies are unlikely to defy the majorities of their citizens who are opposed to deeper involvement in the war, and he'd squander political capital on an almost certainly futile bid to convince them otherwise.

<snip>

Some American officers contemptuously refer to the 30,000-strong NATO -led International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, as "I Suck At Fighting" or "I Saw Americans Fight."

ISAF comprises some 30,000 troops from the 26 NATO members and 15 other countries. The 19,000-strong U.S. contingent is by far the largest. A separate 17,000-strong U.S. force concentrates on counter-terrorism operations.

During his campaign, Obama made a drive for more NATO troops a key plank of his plan for ending the war in Afghanistan , which last year saw its worst violence since the 2001 U.S. invasion.

"We haven't given up yet (on seeking more allied combat forces), but there is a certain realization that there is only so much water you can squeeze from that stone," said a second U.S. defense official, who asked not to be further identified to avoid speaking ahead of the new administration.

<more>

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20090129/wl_mcclatchy/3155639