Reply #2: It is good that Obama is taking the time to get the policy right

[karynnj]

For a very good understanding of the different alternative policies, last Wednesday's Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing is well worth watching or reading Kerry's, Lugar's and the experts prepared statements. All are linked to this page - http://foreign.senate.gov/hearings/2009/hrg090916p.html (clicking the title gets the video - it actually starts 22 minutes in. ) They explain clearly the difference between counter terrorism and counter insurgency. One think that is clear is that it is not inconsistent to have a counter terrorism policy and still have projects to help the Afghan people. ( here is an article on the hearing - http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=b8eb5c365fc82d8c525e89411b767a8d )

There was a followup hearing - http://foreign.senate.gov/hearings/2009/hrg090917a.html labeled "countering the threat of failure in Afghanistan.

Obama is right to take the time needed to make sure that we have a policy that is really worth the sacrifices that implementing it entail.