"What Obama Said and Failed to Say About Afghanistan"

[Me.]

Long but interesting take on the speech

“President Obama made this appeal for unified support of his Afghanistan policy at the very end of his speech at West Point last night. It seems awkwardly placed at the conclusion of a long and fairly cerebral oration. After reviewing the arguments for his policy, the placement may make some sense.

The president began by saying he was going to discuss “the nature of our commitment there, the scope of our interests, and the strategy that my Administration will pursue to bring this war to a successful conclusion.”

The pertinent history on our commitment, according to the president, began with the attack on 9/11 2001. He told us that "ruthless, repressive and radical movement that seized control of that country after it was ravaged by years of Soviet occupation and civil war, and after the attention of America and our friends had turned elsewhere." That regime served as the incubator for al Qaeda’s planning and execution of the attacks on New York City and the capitol.

Obama outlined the nearly unanimous votes in both houses of Congress to authorize the war; an authorization that he reminded us is still in effect. He moved from authorization to our quick military
victory. Those efforts gave "A place that had known decades of fear now had reason to hope." How? In concert with the United Nations, the United States created a government headed by Humid Karzai, who remains the president of Afghanistan today.

Obama's narrative shifted from the initial rationale and success of the Afghanistan invasion to the reasons for action today. The Iraq War distracted from the efforts in Afghanistan and disrupted our unified post 9/11 relationships with the international community. He mentioned 160,000 troops in Iraq and 30,000 in Afghanistan to illustrate the skewed priorities but claimed that some progress in Afghanistan had been made.”…CONT…

http://agonist.org/michael_collins/20091202/what_obama_said_and_failed_to_say_about_afghanistan

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. yes the Afghan thing should have been sorted first not Iraq

Bush, cheney and Rumsfeld had us chasing our own tails.

[Me.]

2. All In The Quest For

Never ending war