Obama: Success of strategy evident in a year

[unhappycamper]

Obama: Success of strategy evident in a year
By Steve R. Hurst - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Dec 14, 2009 5:41:44 EST

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says he’ll know by the end of 2010 if his Afghan strategy is working, and pledges to change direction if the U.S. military is not on course “in terms of securing population centers” from Taliban militants.

The president also says his Dec. 1 speech ordering 30,000 more American soldiers and Marines into the 8-year-old war “hit me in the gut” emotionally more than any he had given.

After doubling the U.S. force in Afghanistan in March, just two months after taking office, Obama raised the stakes further by ordering a nearly 50-percent troop increase in a speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. He issued the orders even as support for the war was crumbling among the public and opposed by many fellow Democrats in Congress.

Many observers said Obama appeared overly analytical and emotionally detached in ordering still more Americans into an increasingly violent mission against the Taliban to prevent their takeover of the Afghan government and a feared return of al-Qaida terrorists.

Not true, Obama told CBS’s “60 Minutes” in an interview taped Dec. 7 for broadcast Sunday night.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/12/ap_obama_afghanistan_121409/