Obama's strategy in Afghanistan

President Obama said Tuesday that the deployment of 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan is part of a strategy to reverse the Taliban's momentum and stabilize the country's government.

"There is no imminent threat of the government being overthrown, but the Taliban has gained momentum," Obama said at the U.S. Military Academy. "Al Qaeda has not re-emerged in Afghanistan in the same numbers as before 9/11, but they retain their safe-havens along the border.

"And our forces lack the full support they need to effectively train and partner with Afghan security forces and better secure the population. ... In short, the status quo is not sustainable."

Obama said he'd begin sending the additional troops "at the fastest pace possible" starting in early 2010 "with a goal of starting to withdraw forces from the country in July 2011."

The president said additional U.S. forces bolstered by NATO troops "will allow us to accelerate handing over responsibility to Afghan forces."

Senior administration officials said Tuesday that Obama has a goal of withdrawing most U.S. forces by the end of his current term, which ends in January 2013.

In his speech Tuesday, Obama said his strategy had three objectives:

• Deny al Qaeda a safe haven

• Reverse the Taliban's momentum and deny it the ability to overthrow Afghanistan's government

• Strengthen Afghanistan's security forces and government

The additional troops was one way to achieve these, he said. Other strategies will include holding Afghan government leaders accountable for corruption, focus assistance on areas that could help the lives of Afghans, and securing the country's border with Pakistan.

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[12/3/09] President gets elected, moves in and drinks the water — and becomes a clone of the previous occupant, pursuing the same disastrous policies.

President Barack Obama is a case in point. The announcement of his plan to send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan and to escalate the war there — in the name of supposedly ending it sooner — is double-speak and doubly wrong.

Obama, in explaining his decision, has apparently decided to continue the misguided and illegal Bush doctrine of preemptive war by asserting the U.S. has the right to make war anywhere to prevent a possible future "terrorist" threat.

Where is the change we voted for — and that Obama promised? His decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan will waste billions more and continue the cycle of death, hatred and destruction. This will become Obama's war and will doom the possibility of any real change. We need to speak out and mobilize to bring the senseless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to an earlier end than is envisioned by Obama, his misadvisers and the Pentagon brass.

John Witeck
Honolulu