Obama Is Considering Strategy Shift in Afghan War

[maddezmom]

Source: NYT


Published: September 22, 2009
WASHINGTON — President Obama is exploring alternatives to a major troop increase in Afghanistan, including a plan advocated by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to scale back American forces and focus more on rooting out Al Qaeda there and in Pakistan, officials said Tuesday.

The options under review are part of what administration officials described as a wholesale reconsideration of a strategy the president announced with fanfare just six months ago. Two new intelligence reports are being conducted to evaluate Afghanistan and Pakistan, officials said.

The sweeping reassessment has been prompted by deteriorating conditions on the ground, the messy and still unsettled outcome of the Afghan elections and a dire report by Mr. Obama’s new commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal. Aides said the president wanted to examine whether the strategy he unveiled in March was still the best approach and whether it could work with the extra combat forces General McChrystal wants.

In looking at other options, aides said, Mr. Obama might just be testing assumptions — and assuring liberals in his own party that he was not rushing into a further expansion of the war — before ultimately agreeing to the anticipated troop request from General McChrystal. But the review suggests the president is having second thoughts about how deeply to engage in an intractable eight-year conflict that is not going well.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/world/asia/23policy.html?_r=1&hp

[ProudDad]

1. How about "Get the Fuck Out!" (n/t)

[Ken Burch]

2. That too.

This would be a clear step towards that.

[ProudDad]

3. I'm not holding my breath

"Hope for the best but expect the worst..."

[dipsydoodle]

6. ditto

:(

[tblue]

4. I am waiting for Obama to be what I imagined him to be.

He's amazingly talented, eloquent, classy, fair-minded, and brilliant, but he straddles way too many fences. I'm glad Joe Biden is there to advise him. I think I trust his judgment on this. This 'war' is a disaster.

[Babyserendip]

11. Obama has just found out his Harvard connections...and his effervescent ethuisam is not going to cut

It is becoming apparently clear Obama has tied his hitch to the same ultimate interests behind Bush and Clinton.....His Change is THEIR change.

No Public Option Health Insurance
No End to Iraq & Afghanistan
No End to US Slavery on US Expat (worldwide income taxation)
No to HR 1207 - to protect the BANKS
No to cutting the military budget by only 10 to 15% to pay for his entire health plan!!

He is a trilateral commission stooge from sea to shining sea it would appear.

Really...what is this guy about?

OBAMA BREAK UR BONDS - U LOOK LIKE A SLAVE BRO.

[Adsos Letter]

5. Setting aside for the moment all of the tactical/strategic reasons...

Setting aside for the moment all of the other reasons to expect the Afghan War to end badly for us, the fact that the Karzai government is deeply, and widely corrupt is probably one of the most implacable elements working against any success there.

[No Elephants]

7. Three words: Shah of Iran

We alienated a few generations of Iranians with our support of the Shah. Ditto our support of Saddam Hussein. (Of course, our subsequent illegal invasion of Iraq alienated even mre.) Our kids and grandkids will pay for our support of the Karzai gangsters.

[No Elephants]

8. The Mafia terrorized many in the US, yet, we did not bomb or occupy Sicily.

[Vidar]

9. Yes, but they turned a profit. That's all tthat counts. So do our merchants of death.

[Babyserendip]

10. Two Options to Winning!. ONLY 2.

Option 1.) CUT AND RUN...and we win by losing....no joke.

Option 2.) You team up with the Afghanpashtun nation to break Pakistan in three new countries....and in the process win the overwhelming gratitude of all Afghans (including the Taliban....which are all Afghanpashtun).....and further win the undying gratitude of the Balochi and Sindhies who also want to be free of their Punjab oppressors!

To keep up the GOOD FIGHT as it...or SHIFT the strategy to the same strategy.......is guaranteed misery for the innocent societies the United States is terrorizing and further is going to lead to more blow back and centuries of long hate against the US.

....as our adversary Mullah Omar just recently stated, "We would like to point out that we fought against the British invaders for 80 years from 1839 to 1919 and ultimately got independence by defeating ."

HAHAHAHAHah does anyone really think we can last 80 years? HAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH HA!

[Bragi]

12. I hope for a good outcome here

I'm one of those who has been disappointed with how President Obama has handled Afghanistan.

I know that he made unwise promises during the campaign -- to escalate the Afghan conflict as he wound down Iraq -- and understand that this view was pretty much a Democratic Party dogma for much of Bush's "war on terror".

But I always thought he'd finesse it somehow, so he didn't really escalate. Instead, however, he escalated, and the results are not pretty.

So I'm hoping now he has found his feet on this and is really looking for a "changed strategy" that involves pulling back and away from a fruitless conflict. Look after al Qaeda with surgical precision, yes, but nation build in Afghanistan, no more.

And if America really wants to educate girls and women in foreign lands, and I would encourage this to the utmost, then there's a big world of opportunities where you don't have to mount a military invasion and occupation and can pretty well guarantee spectacular social and economic results. Most of these opportunities are in Africa. Drop by sometime.