Afghanastan - Obama's war of choosing

They handed Afghanistan to Obama and are desperately trying to dissociate themselves from the mess they created.

Yes, I fully appreciate that Obama was handed a poisoned chalice by the Republicans.
But ... I just wish it still didn't feel like business as usual in Afghanistan, that's all ...
Sigh.

This is the same Michael Steele who held a party at a strip joint, paid for with contributions to the RNC. Can't we fire him?

seems like snapping defeat from the jaws of victory or perhaps just imitating the DNC with shots to foot. I don't think this event will amount to a hill of beans. Both parties have a bear to cross.

you contributed? you can send him his pink slip

While it is true that Obama did not start this war, he promoted the notion we can and should win it during his campaign. That was the one thing that made me hesitant to vote for him.

Which campaign did you vote in. The one in which I voted had a democratic candidate who said we would get out of Iraq and Afganistan as soon as possible which is why I voted for him last time but will once again push for Hillery in the next election!

Same here rabel22.....I wish Hillary had won.

I don't know how she would be any different. She was even more pro-war than Obama is.

Cycloptichorn

Maybe...but knowing what we have in Obama, it's hard not to wish for something different. Sure, it may have been worse with Clinton, but it's hard to imagine how.

Obama was posturing to the left regarding war, but obviously holds views similar to the Bush administration. Maybe Clinton was posturing to the right, but would have ended up further to the left.

I don't recall Obama promising to get us out of Afghanistan.

To suggest we pull out now after so much sacrifice is the act of cowardice, not beneficial to any one except the devils who wish to impose their medieval anarchy on a promised people. We have led them to the mound and shown them the promised land, we cant now desert them. It matters not your previous views , it has been started we must finish it.

Same argument for Iraq....and really any war or bombing we've ever done.

I believe the war will have the kind of inconclusive end we should by now expect.
Korea - uneasy truce
Vietnam - out in disarray
Iraq - cut it off or adopt that nation
Afghanistan - ?

Wait, Michael Steele paid for a party at a strip club with RNC money...

How is this a bad thing?

((Yes, I am a big Michael Steele fan))

All through his presidential run, he spoke of getting out of Iraq and concentrating on Afghanistan. Obama's hawkishness on Afghanistan made me very nervous.

Oh, for christ's sake. Not this hyperventilation again.

He's doing a fine job, and has accomplished more than the last two Dem presidents combined, already.

Cycloptichorn

http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/subjects/afghanistan/

and from the Boston Globe, 15 July 2008:

Barack Obama and John McCain today offered diametrically opposite views of the war in Iraq, even as both called for sending thousands more US troops to Afghanistan.

Democrat Obama declared that the failed policy in Iraq -- which he argued was never the central front in the war on terror -- has distracted attention from the growing terrorist threat in Afghanistan and proves the need to withdraw from Iraq. "If another attack on our homeland comes, it will likely come from the same region where 9/11 was planned," he said in a speech in Washington. "And yet today, we have five times more troops in Iraq than Afghanistan."
. . .
In what is being billed as a major policy speech, Obama declared this morning that if elected president, he would redirect attention and US forces to Afghanistan.

"It is unacceptable that almost seven years after nearly 3,000 Americans were killed on our soil, the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 are still at large," he said. "Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahari are recording messages to their followers and plotting more terror. The Taliban controls parts of Afghanistan. Al Qaeda has an expanding base in Pakistan that is probably no farther from their old Afghan sanctuary than a train ride from Washington to Philadelphia."
. . .

"As President, I will pursue a tough, smart and principled national security strategy -- one that recognizes that we have interests not just in Baghdad, but in Kandahar and Karachi, in Tokyo and London, in Beijing and Berlin," he continued. "I will focus this strategy on five goals essential to making America safer: ending the war in Iraq responsibly; finishing the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban; securing all nuclear weapons and materials from terrorists and rogue states; achieving true energy security; and rebuilding our alliances to meet the challenges of the 21st century."

. . .


Obama on CNN, 21 July 2008:

Sen. Barack Obama said Sunday that United States needs to focus on Afghanistan in its battle against terrorism.


Sen. Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai meet Sunday in Kabul.

"The Afghan government needs to do more. But we have to understand that the situation is precarious and urgent here in Afghanistan. And I believe this has to be our central focus, the central front, on our battle against terrorism," Obama said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation."

"I think one of the biggest mistakes we've made strategically after 9/11 was to fail to finish the job here, focus our attention here. We got distracted by Iraq," he said.

Obama said troop levels must increase in Afghanistan.

"For at least a year now, I have called for two additional brigades, perhaps three," he told CBS. "I think it's very important that we unify command more effectively to coordinate our military activities. But military alone is not going to be enough."


Here are more citizen perceptions, this time from Yahoo answers rather than a2k:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091202070821AAqiOnS

Finally, from Time, 17 July 2008:

"My first order as Commander in Chief will be to end the war in Iraq and refocus our efforts on Afghanistan and our broader security interests. Let me be clear--my plan would not abandon Iraq. It is in our strategic interest to maintain a residual force that will go after al-Qaeda, train Iraqi security forces and protect U.S. interests. But we must recognize that the central front in the war on terror is not in Iraq, and it never was. The central front is in Afghanistan and Pakistan." Barack Obama

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1823945,00.html#ixzz0seCn3yDq

No, you cant lump all wars together and say they are all unjust. The Afghans have expectations and to now leave them would be their sacrifice in vain let alone ours.