President Obama: I Intend to "Finish the Job" in Afghanistan

[bigtree]

Wow. That's pretty decisive. Is it realistic for the president to believe that he can "finish the job" in Afghanistan?


here's the president today:

At a brief press conference following a meeting with India's Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, at the White House, Mr. Obama said that "after eight years, some of those years in which we did not have, I think, either the resources or the strategy to get the job done, it is my intention to finish the job."

"And I feel very confident that when the American people hear a clear rationale for what we're doing there, and how we intend to achieve our goals, that they will be supportive," he continued.

"I will be making an announcement to the American people about how we intend to move forward, I will be doing so shortly," the president said. "I think that the review that we've gone through has been comprehensive and extremely useful, and has brought together my key military advisers, but also civilian advisers."

"It is in our strategic interest, in our national security interest, to make sure that Al-Qaeda and its extremist allies cannot operate effectively in those areas," he continued. "We are going to dismantle and degrade their capabilities and ultimately disable and destroy their networks. And Afghanistan's stability is important to that process."

read: http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/11/24/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5761691.shtml

[kenny blankenship]

1. So is the protest march scheduled yet?

[SIMPLYB1980]

20. LOL!

:rofl:

[bigtree]

28. peace flag is still hanging in front of my house

I could see going back to the corner where we protested the Iraq invasion and occupation with our local Friends.

[Name removed]

34. Deleted message

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[kenny blankenship]

38. We need to plant that flag in front of his house

[Forkboy]

29. No, they're going to wait until more people are dead. You know, like you're doing.

[kenny blankenship]

35. So I'll be seeing you there, yes?

[Forkboy]

54. Maybe if you actually went, yes.

[chimpymustgo]

2. Stoopid. Fucking stoopid.

[Oregone]

3. sad

[Bluebear]

4. Fine. What is "the job", Mr. President?

[tridim]

6. Apparently every worst-case scenario DU'ers can think of.

You people are jumping the gun, yet again. The same thing has happened hundreds of times since the innaguration.

[Bluebear]

8. "You people" :)

[tridim]

16. How about "The sky is ALWAYS falling" DU group? Better?

[Bluebear]

19. Yes, that's better, dim.

[jonnyblitz]

26. LMFAO!!

I am so fuckin glad you are back.:hi:

[JDPriestly]

25. Look. I want Obama to succeed. All it would take would be one

really good bit of good news. When he goes overseas and talks to people there, I feel a little better. But then I remind myself that I don't really know what is going on behind the doors when Obama and world leaders close them and speak privately.

As for Obama's domestic policy, the improvements he has made are mostly just superficial. He does not have the courage to call the American to help him change the way D.C. works. He does not have the courage to take care of the country, to get the economy going or to lower the unemployment rate. He will just wait.

My prediction. The unemployment figures will "improve" but thanks only to much lower wages and a lower living standard for most Americans. That's how the "free market" works when the leaders of that market reject morality, compassion and common sense. And that is the situation in the United States today. The business community has abandoned reason. It's only purpose is to show profits on the bottom lines of pieces of paper. They don't even produce decent, tangible products much less really serve their customers, the community, the nation or the world.

We are living in the post-capitalist world. The "business world" is a sham, a poor knock-off of the capitalism that Adam Smith wrote of.

[Name removed]

36. Deleted message

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[anigbrowl]

12. that would be in the 4th paragraph

"It is in our strategic interest, in our national security interest, to make sure that Al-Qaeda and its extremist allies cannot operate effectively in those areas," he continued. "We are going to dismantle and degrade their capabilities and ultimately disable and destroy their networks. And Afghanistan's stability is important to that process."

I agree with this and look forward to hearing his proposal on how he specifically intends to achieve it. Although I'm in a minority about this on DU, I do not believe that simply withdrawing our military presence from the area will cause Al Qaeda and its ilk to lapse into quiescence. It's worth bearing in mind that the US didn't engage in any major provocations of radical Islam leading up to September 11th, and indeed was very active during the late 90s in defending Bosnian Muslims against the depredations of Serbian nationalists. I don't hold Obama responsible for the fact that the Bush administration allowed the situation in Afghanistan to deteriorate while engaging in an unjustifiable war of choice against Iraq, but Obama still has to deal with the realities of that strategic problem.

[Bluebear]

21. Yes, dismantle & destroy them. With 30,000 troops in a country of a quarter million square miles.

[anigbrowl]

24. Like I said, I'll wait to hear his specific proposals.

I don't think think the situation is as simple as you suggest, as if opposition were uniformly distributed over the geography of Afghanistan.

[4_TN_TITANS]

33. Or like Diane Rehm said to one of her war-supporting guests...

who said we should stay til we win - "win what?"

[EFerrari]

5. it's too bad there isn't an innoculation for American Exceptionalism.

"We are going to dismantle and degrade their capabilities and ultimately disable and destroy their networks."

No, we won't do that.

[Fading Captain]

7. It's meaningless mumbo-jumbo .. macho talk like Bush

Obama is the new Bush.

I hope there is a Nader candidate in 2012.

[Echo In Light]

11. "Politics is the shadow cast by big business over society." John Dewey

[Zodiak]

9. I sure would like to hear the rationale

Because what is written here is just the same shit uttered by a different President.

...and I am not scared of terrorists, so the fear card isn't going to work. I fear not being able to support my wife more than some kook with a Koran and an attitude problem. If Obama lays out his ideas with a good dose of fear, I will be disappointed.

...and not having kids, because who the fuck would want to have a kid when BOTH parties are warmongers?

[KamaAina]

10. Finish what job?

Bankrupting the country? :shrug:

[Postman]

15. I'm done with this fraud.

One term Obama.

[SammyWinstonJack]

40. Fraud is exactly right.

One term is all he deserves, is all he's earned and that is being generous

[chimpymustgo]

18. The pipeline for Unocal.

[KamaAina]

27. Good answer!

:thumbsup:

[monmouth]

13. Sounded like right out of the mouth(s) of the Generals...sigh.

[Postman]

14. War on Terror is a red herring. This is about energy from the "Stans" region....

Obama is a one term President.

[Sinti]

17. He can finish the jobs, if he wants to

There are two paths to do just that. He can approve a huge surge, bomb the crumbles out of what's left, and then do an aggressive COIN, which would basically be a house-to-house operation searching for 'insurgents' and removing them. You will eventually have to kill a lot of people with this solution. When you come through town killing people and taking them away to prison, people will fight back.

Alternatively, he can demand that we get out at any time - draw up plans to pull out. Some soldiers would have to go in to pull us out, but it would be like calling the movers. From there, he can engage with Afghanistan's neighbors and try to bring them into some semblance of parity with the region via truly diplomatic means. We could call this the RICE method (Reduction Inclusion Cooperation Elimination)

Granted, these are overly-simplified solutions, but they would probably look like that. Anything else is just putting a pause for what has to happen eventually.

[JDPriestly]

31. As soon as he "finishes the job," some other threat will emerge.

In life, you either learn to respond quietly to your fears or you just move from one fear to the next. After a while, you are just so paranoid, you aren't really living. That is what has happened in some sectors of our society.

All this focus on Al Qaeda may be warranted, but somehow, I have this feeling that we project more power into Al Qaeda than it has. I'm not denying that Al Qaeda exists and that it can be dangerous, but can't we find a balance between being wary of it, prepared for it, defending against damage it could cause and still living together as a country. After all, here in California we live with the threats of earthquakes and fires. In the midwest, people live with tornadoes and in the Southeast, people live with the threat of hurricanes. We all live with fear of disease, cold and hunger. We are more likely to be destroyed by any of these facts of life than by Al Qaeda (dangerous as it is).

The cure for paranoia is to get outside, take a walk, start a pot of flowers. Watch things grow. Do something with your hands. Make your life better.

And that is the answer for our nation. We need to be focusing our energy on what we are building, what kind of nation we are creating for our children and grandchildren. If we do that, we will be united and strong and courageous in the face of any threat that emerges.

Increasing the number of troops, expanding the war -- not the answers.

[Sinti]

46. It's true - fear is the enemy that steals your life and liberty

We need to focus on making things good - you cannot protect human beings from the bogeyman. All my life I've heard the government tell me to be afraid of something, communists, exotic viruses, terrorists, killer bees... enough.

We have real problems at home that are much more of a threat than anything overseas, and NOBODY hates you for your freedoms, except maybe the top 1% who don't like it when you complain.

[TicketyBoo]

39. This is the only way I can see.

If we set up a base inside Afghanistan to go after the ones in Pakistan, it may be worthwhile, but week before last on 60 Minutes Byron Pitts did a segment where he followed soldiers on bomb-detecting missions. At the conclusion of the piece, he asked two of the soldiers what success in Afghanistan would consist of. One of them said, "Going home alive," and the second soldier agreed. Well, if that is "success" in Afghanistan, then it could be accomplished by getting the heck out of Dodge right now before we lose a bunch more soldiers. All they are accomplishing is getting themselves blown up. It makes me sick that there would be an escalation of simply more of the same.

Undoubtedly, the President has the best minds in the country advising him, so, hopefully he has a better way than I can think of to end this mess. I haven't quite given up hope. Yet. But I am mighty skeptical.

[mullard12ax7]

22. Enlist now or shut up, that's what I just heard

in another thread. War is so popular now that it's being promoted by a (D).

[Forkboy]

30. After your other post you really have no right to complain about what any one told you.

[n2doc]

23. ...

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

32. "Stay the course", "Bring it on", "Smoke 'em out" - v2009(D) Installation provided by MIC.

Bogeyman provided by CIA.

Instructions provided by MIC.

Funding provided by congress as instructed by lobbyists.

Cannon-Fodder provided by the American People.

Exit strategy provided by the Taliban & Associates.

Have a nice war.

[mvd]

37. Sad but that about says it

I have a feeling this goes above Obama. Still, I care about Obama's success, and really think he could be getting us in deeper with this surge.

[krabigirl]

41. Yep, this is why I didn't want him nominated. Support him now on most things, but NOT this.

[FiveGoodMen]

42. Finish the job of destroying America's economy and its credibility in the rest of the world?

Finish the job Bush started?

Worse than I expected.

Dumb or evil. One of them for sure. (And he doesn't really seem stupid)

[alterfurz]

43. Dear USA: Best Wishes & Good Luck with that!

Imperialistically yours,
Britain & Russia

[tekisui]

44. Big mistake.

He is accepting the repuke frame. This will come back to bite him.

[bigtree]

52. much like he has in Iraq

already his minions there are making noises about staying longer if conditions warrant, justifying it along the exact lines Bush used to hold our troops in place there. Much stickier in Afghanistan imo.

[WVRICK13]

45. WTF

Afghanistan is what really collapsed the Soviet state. They weakened their central structure to support a war that could not be won. Sadly, we seem to be unable to learn from history. You can't fight an ideology in a war.

[alarimer]

47. Finish what job?

Just what exactly is our mission in Afghanistan?

Is it getting Osama? Because he is in Pakistan (although we have actually invaded them to, or rather Blackwater had, according to Jeremy Scahill).

Obama is a fool if he believes anyone can actually win in Afghanistan.

[Greyhound]

48. So what exactly is the job? What defines it's completion? How much and for how long

will we be forced to pay for this misadventure? How many billionaires do we have to create before we are to be allowed to take care of the nation's real business?

[Naturyl]

49. Afghanistan is the Empire Breaker

It humbled the Soviet Union and may yet humble the US. Soviet Union wanted to "finish the job" too. They failed.

[dysfunctional press]

50. "finish the job?"

the job of driving the final stake through the heart of our economy?

[DireStrike]

51. so he's gonna kill/capture OBL and get us the hell out?

Sure hope so!


...or is "the job" newspeak for "the pipelines"?

[martymar64]

53. Famous last words

I'm sure the next three presidents will say the same thing, word for word.

[PVnRT]

55. Maybe someone could tell us what the criteria is for finishing it

before we send more grist for the mill.

[boomerbust]

56. Do all you nay sayers

Think Hilary would have ended the war in Afghanistan? No, I didn't think so.

[bigtree]

57. I always though the political dynamic made that more likely than Mr. Obama

She was my third choice in the election and I chose her over Mr. Obama because I believed she'd feel more political pressure to move toward the left. The president (I feel) assumes that he's representative of the left and I think he has such confidence in the strength and character of his progressive ideals that he's chosen a cabinet which offers a more conservative pov. I think he feels he has to disprove whatever negatives he perceives about his more liberal inclinations and has tacked noticeably to the right on many issues. I think Hillary Clinton would have tacked left, giving her attention to the opposite dynamic where most folks already saw her as a moderate or centrist.

[Hannah Bell]

58. it's not about hilary, for chrissake.