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TPM Election Central: Obama Still Undecided About Troops On Eve Of Asia Trip
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U.S. ambassador dissents on Afghan troop increase.. urges a pause until Kabul government shifts course http://tinyurl.com/ylh5ld6 11/12/2009 |
Obama Still Undecided About Troops On Eve Of Asia Trip
TPM Election Central —
President Obama completed his eighth meeting of the war council this afternoon without making a decision about how many more troops to send to Afghanistan.
The Situation Room meeting, held before Obama leaves for a more than week-long trip to Asia, ran from 2:30 to 4:50 p.m.
Administration officials continue to say Obama is considering his options as the Washington Post reports the top ambassador is unhappy with troop levels increasing.
Per the White House: The President and his team discussed the length of time that it ...
Happy Veterans Day ... At Some Point
The Garlic —
... U.S. ambassador dissents on Afghan troop increase ...Strongly worded cables urge a pause until Kabul government shifts course ...
The Note's Must-Reads for Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009
The Note —
... “U.S. Envoy in Afghanistan Said to Advise Against More Troops” LINK
AFGHANISTAN:
The New York Times’ Elisabeth Bumiller and Mark Landler: “U.S. Envoy Urges Caution on Forces for Afghanistan” LINK
The New York Times’ Helene Cooper: “In Leaning on Karzai, U.S. Has Limited Leverage” LINK
The Washington Post’s Greg Jaffe, Scott Wilson and Karen DeYoung: “U.S. envoy resists increase in troops” LINK
The Hill's Sam Youngman: “Obama ponders how long Afghanistan plans will take to ...
U.S. Ambassador To Afghanistan Warns Against Sending More Troops To Afghanistan
Below The Beltway —
Well, this should certainly have an interesting impact on the debate about U.S. policy in Afghanistan:
The U.S. ambassador in Kabul sent two classified cables to Washington in the past week expressing deep concerns about sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan until President Hamid Karzai’s government demonstrates that it is willing to tackle the corruption and mismanagement that has fueled the Taliban’s rise, senior U.S. officials said.
Karl W. Eikenberry’s memos, sent as President Obama enters the final stages of his deliberations ...
Baggage Handling: Obama leaves behind unfinished business as he leaves for Asia
The Note —
... "Eikenberry's last-minute interventions have highlighted the nagging undercurrent of the policy discussion: the U.S. dependence on a partnership with a Karzai government whose incompetence and corruption is a universal concern within the administration," The Washington Post's Greg Jaffe, Scott Wilson and Karen DeYoung report. ...
Rejects
Mudville Gazette —
Official: Obama rejects war options because U.S. envoy resists troop increase, cites Karzai as problem.
Ambassador Eikenberry's memos expressed "deep concerns about sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan until President Hamid Karzai's government demonstrates that it is willing to tackle the corruption and mismanagement that has fueled the Taliban's rise, senior U.S. officials said."
Hardly surprising news there, the Obama administration's first priority in Afghanistan has always been Hamid Karzai ...
For Obama, escalation in Afghanistan is the only option?
MyDD —
I'm dumbfounded that there is not a single military alternative given the Obama adminstration that is arguing for a scaling back of our troops in Afghanistan: On the eve of his nine-day trip to Asia, Obama was given a series of options laid out by military planners with differing numbers of new U.S. deployments, ranging from 10,000 to 40,000 troops. None of the scenarios calls for scaling ...
On Afghanistan, President Obama Presses Pentagon for More Information Before Making Decision
Political Punch —
Previous | Main On Afghanistan, President Obama Presses Pentagon for More Information Before Making Decision November 12, 2009 10:11 AM Some White House officials thought that President Obama's 8th "war council" meeting Wednesday to decide on a strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan might be the last. But by the time it wrapped up, no decisions had been made and so many lingering questions remained about the strategy forward, it seemed clear that more meetings were necessary and any announcement will be delayed far beyond the unofficial November 11 deadline administration aides had been shooting for. In Wednesday's meeting, Pentagon officials presented more details about four ...
Is Obama Getting Us Out Of Afghanistan After All-- Or Is This More Multi-Dimensional Chess?
DownWithTyranny! —
I listened to President Obama's speech from Arlington National Ceremony yesterday and there was something that struck me as odd. This was the paragraph (which I found at whitehouse.gov): In this time of war, we gather here mindful that the generation serving today already deserves a place alongside previous generations for the courage they have shown and the sacrifices that they have made. In an era where so many acted only in pursuit of narrow self-interest, they've chosen the opposite. They chose to serve the cause that is greater than self; many even after they knew they'd be sent into harm's way. And for the better part of a decade, they have endured ...
It's On To Plan "E"
JustOneMinute —
Per the AP Obama has rejected all four alternative Afghanistan strategies devised by his National Security team, which is deeply divided - Eikenberry, the current ambassador and retired three star general doesn't want to see any more troops until Karzai makes progress on corruption: The U.S. ambassador in Kabul sent two classified cables to Washington in the past week expressing deep concerns about sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan until President Hamid Karzai's government demonstrates that it is willing to tackle the corruption and mismanagement that has fueled the Taliban's rise, senior U.S. officials said. ...In addition to placing the Karzai problem prominently ...
Say Nyet to Afghanistan
Antiwar.com Original —
Mikhail Gorbachev , head of state of the Soviet Union when it withdrew from Afghanistan, has two words for Barack Obama: get out. Gorbachev, now 78, said in an interview in Berlin that he sees no chance of American success in Afghanistan even with more troops. "I believe that there is no prospect of a military solution," he said. The U.S. "should be preparing the ground for withdrawal rather than additional troops." Gorbachev noted there was little chance that Obama would take his advice. Maybe yes, maybe no. ABC’s George Stephanopoulos offers a ray of hope. He says Obama is looking for "off ramps" out of Afghanistan, that Obama’s not satisfied with what he’s heard so far ...
Obama vs Karzai Over Exit Strategy
The Moderate Voice —
Barack Obama is doing what George W. Bush failed to do in Iraq–looking for “where the off-ramps are,” according to a White House official.
As the President starts a nine-day Asia trip, he leaves behind the message that his Afghanistan decision has been strongly influenced by Karl Eikenberry, the US ambassador who was once military commander there, whose doubts about Hamid Karzai are reflected in a White House statement:
“The President believes that we need to make clear to the Afghan government that our commitment is not open-ended. After years of substantial investments by the American people, governance in Afghanistan must improve in ...
40,000 More Troops To Fight 300 Al-Quada?
The Moderate Voice —
As President Barack Obama deliberates — no, Dick, he’s not “dithering” — a revised strategy and troop levels in Afghanistan, some people in the White House and Pentagon have loose lips and leaked some startling news this past week. If true, consider these developments:
The president has rejected four options on strategy and troop levels from his military intelligence team and instructed them to start over.
The U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, a former commander of troops in the Asian countries, has bucked the now top general and Secretary of State by claiming additional troops to Afghanistan would be a mistake because it would play into ...
The Missing Link From Killeen to Kabul
Commondreams.org Views —
The dead at Fort Hood had not even been laid to rest when their massacre became yet another political battle cry for the self-proclaimed patriots of the American right. Their verdict was unambiguous: Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an American-born psychiatrist of Palestinian parentage who sent e-mail ...
Jim Wallis: New Tools for Peace in Afghanistan
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com —
When all you have is a hammer everything seems like a nail. No famous line more aptly applies to the president's current dilemma of seeking the best solution for Afghanistan. When it comes to foreign policy, if all you have is military options then every situation becomes an argument for a troop escalation. For Afghanistan, President Obama has been presented with four options -- all hammers -- ranging in size from 10,000 to 40,000 more troops. Gratefully, he has sent his advisors back to the drawing board to come up with some new options.
The Times of London reported that President Obama also spoke with Karl Eikenberry yesterday, the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, ...
Obama's Afghan Dilemma: The Only Real Exit Strategy Is Political Suicide
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com —
President Obama said yesterday he is still several weeks away from adopting a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan.
What's taking so long? Obama wants his plan to include an exit strategy -- or an "endgame" as he put it yesterday. And there isn't one -- at least not one that's politically palatable.
Obama has talked about the need for an exit strategy before, dating back at least to a "60 Minutes" interview in March, during the rollout of his initial Afghan plan. He made the point pretty emphatically: "There's gotta be an exit strategy."
Up until a few months ago, Obama evidently thought he had one. Presumably, it involved handing the country back to ...
Johnny one note is at it again
Blog For Arizona —
Posted by AzblueMeanie:
Arizona's Neoconservative Senator John McCain is at it again. This is the man who was a patron of Ahmed Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress which fabricated intelligence of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. This is the man who advocated for war with Iraq and confidently predicted before the war that the U.S. would “win easily”: ...
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