Obama To Specify Transfer Date, Not End Date
By Reid Wilson
In a speech laying out a plan for Afghanistan at West Point tonight, Pres. Obama will give a specific date by which U.S. forces will begin to hand responsibilities to Afghan forces, but he will not specify an end date for U.S. involvement in the country.
Senior admin officials said Obama will commit 30K new troops to the region by next summer, bringing to at least 98K the number of American troops in the region. Their goal, similar to that of the surge in Iraq, will be to create opportunities for the Afghan army to build capacity.
U.S. troops patrol in Helmand Province
"The force option that the president has chosen gets more troops into Afghanistan faster than any other option present," one admin official said.
By July '11, American forces will begin transfering power and responsibilities to Afghan forces. But the pace of that transfer, admin officials said, along with the date by which all U.S. forces leave the country will be dictated by events on the ground, rather than by any public timelines.
Obama will reiterate the core goal he laid out in a March '09 speech, aimed at disrupting, dismantling and defeating al Qaeda and preventing its return to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and preventing the Taliban from overthrowing the government in Afghanistan. But he will say the U.S. has no open-ended commitment to staying in the region.
That will be a point made for the benefit of base Dems, many of whom have long opposed the war in Afghanistan. MoveOn.org sent an email to members today urging them to contact the WH to oppose the decision, and liberal members of Congress have begun to voice opposition to an increased level of U.S. involvement.
The new approach Pres. Obama has chosen will aim to reverse Taliban momentum, which an admin official said had been "building steadily" for 3-4 years. The additional troops will secure population centers in the south and east and will aim to transfer responsibility to Afghans "as quickly as possible."
And the U.S. will shift focus to develop agriculture, which the admin believe offers the best promise for the fastest results, officials said.
Obama informed Afghanistan Pres. Hamid Karzai of his decision late last night and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari this morning.
The Obama admin has operated their foreign policy under the assumption that the fates of Afghanistan and Pakistan are linked, and the new strategy Obama outlines tonight will include elements aimed at sabilizing Pakistan's security, political and economic sectors. Pakistan, the admin officials said, need help in all three dimensions.
Obama has spent the last several days briefing key allies around the world. This morning, he spoke with German Chancellor Merkel and Polish Prime Minister Tusk, after already having briefed leaders from the U.K., France and Australia, among others.
After great Deliberation and Agony, Pres. Obama did not just call for the Escalation of the "struggle" but married it with a specified end date of this Struggle through military might.
I saw in Pres. Obama a heart that bleeds for this decision for anyone whose heart center is open and active feels the pain of this task, yet, speaking with a Heavy Heart, I also heard in that speech the unspoken wish or Intent that he was going to also bring Bin Laden to justice ( the great Prize and Symbol)! I also heard the great Urgency he feels to bind up all loose nuclear threats and to prevent them from getting into those hands within Afghanistan and Pakistan which might annihilate the world as we know it. He has not made this this "call to arms" for Oil or for profit based upon a lie but a heartfelt desire to keep safe the people in the world, in the binding up of these nuclear threats to the world by this faction which he knows is still out there plotting to do harm! That in this way we are Standing up for Peace and that somehow we must go into Hell for a Heavenly cause.
I heard him also say to the Military Industrial Complex Machine that there will be an end date, and that it will not be open-ended, but that the battle for peace might call for other strategic ways to get to this goal -- that giving the benefit of the doubt to his generals -- he will try their way (since they are so much more knowledgeable about military than him).
As, he spoke about true security from a world without nuclear weapons (his real true goal), he also spoke about the need to unite with the world to accomplish this task because in truth, terror and nuclear weapons is a world problem! And finally, he called us to the time after 9/11, when we were all united but got deviated from the course, but to return to that Unity of purpose, one more time.... and that if he is lucky, he will bring home the Prize, Bin Ladin, break the back of this threat, and then for the weary and battle scarred-soldiers they can look onward and say, well done -- yet, there's no place like home, there's no place like home!
Let us trust " that there is a goodness in all of life that cannot even be eliminated by thoughts that temporarily cause you to believe that negativity is the underlying reality of human life on earth... " (1) Let us call on that goodness to illuminate our way forward towards that peace and goodwill and seal the door where evil dwells.
1. Ron Scolastico. Doorway to the Soul