It's time for Obama to spell out Afghan strategy

Sacramento Bee ^ | 9/05/09 | Trudy Rubin

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When President Obama's special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, was asked last month to define "success" in those countries, he said, "We'll know it when we see it."

That comment isn't as flip as it seems (see below). But it illustrates the difficulties of explaining why we should get further involved in Afghanistan.

Even as President Obama considers whether to send more troops, public opinion is turning against the Afghan war because Americans can't figure out what we are doing - or where we are headed.

So it's not enough for Obama to say, "This is a war of necessity," not of choice. If he truly believes this (as I do), he must spell out our strategy to the American people and explain why it's worth the costs.

If Obama doesn't take a firm lead, others will shape the debate and narrow his options, just as they have done with health care. And we'll all pay the price.

The president should start by clarifying the strategic reasons we are in Afghanistan and what we are trying to achieve there. Americans grasp, as the president has said, that "we want to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan and prevent their return to either country in the future."

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We have two wars going on, at least one of them not going so well. The threat is not gone. And yet Obama's Attorney General is prosecuting the CIA for doing their job.

Our economy is getting worse, not better. Unemployment is 9.7% and growing. We are facing a double-dip. And the President is pushing his job-killing "cap and trade" debacle.

With two wars, a continuing threat against our country, and an economy that is barely above the level of collapse, what is the President's primary focus? Health care?!?!?

I wish the Commander-in-Chief would shut his trap about "health care" and get to work on the job he is supposed to be doing. Why should America let the Obama administration take over the medical industry when they don't do a very good job on what they are supposed to be doing?

[Hodar]

IMHO, Obama is working towards a goal.

Strip our defense, make our Intelligence community ineffectual, bankrupt us financially, weaken our border and encourage a terroristic attack on our home soil.

Yes, I believe in my heart that he wants nothing less than a terroristic attack, that will kill hundreds, if not thousands of Americans; the more, the better.

Then, he can suspend the US Constitution, shut down the internet and activate all those ‘seed’ laws that have been allowed into our laws over the past 20 years.

I believe Obama wants to be the last elected US President; and our first Dictator for life.

[RetroSexual]

Think of all the "major" speeches we've been subjected to by the President in that last month. How many times has he even mentioned the war?

He's an abject failure, and a lying bastard to boot.

[allmost]

He has an expressed affinity towards Pakistan. He has an expressed antipathy towards the USA. What kind of idiot could not guess his strategy.

[AmericanVictory]

His gaol is clear: attack Americans and their Constitution and install affirmative action fascism. Let our ememies win because that will make the takeover easier if we are weakened.