July 25, 2009

Obama on Afghanistan: victory is a four-letter word

By Neo-neocon
Has a US Commander in Chief ever spoken this way  in the middle of a war?  President Obama has put securing Afghanistan near the top of his foreign policy agenda, but "victory" in the war-torn country isn't necessarily the United States' goal, he said Thursday in a TV interview.Even if LBJ and McNamara felt that way about Vietnam, they didn't state it.  And Afghanistan is no Vietnam -- so far.  What Obama should have said instead was, "Conquering and occupying the country is not the goal, but victory is - -and here's how we define victory in Afghanistan."  Then he could have gone on to cite his stated goals of decreasing Al Qaeda's power in that country, as well as making the terrorist entity unable to attack the United States (although it's hard to see how his success on the latter would be measured, since Al Qaeda hasn't attacked us since 9/11).Instead, Obama added a historically ignorant and otherwise troublesome statement when he went...(Read Full Article)