Obama Defends Afghanistan War; Campaigning Wraps up with Karzai calling on Warlords

Informed Comment by Juan Cole | Aug. 18, 2009 (Opinion)

President Barack Obama on Monday. Ironically, as Obama spoke. Others have pointed out that Bush?s handlers would never have allowed any such thing. Hell, they unconstitutionally designated ?protest zones.? Anyway, about Afghanistan 1. Obama reiterated his pledge to get the US out of Iraq: "And we will remove all our troops from Iraq by the end of 2011. And for America, the Iraq war will end." 2. He has a new strategy in Afghanistan, announced last March. ... Full Story »

Posted by Kaizar Campwala - via NewsRack (Pakistan), Informed Comment, NewsRack (Afghanistan)

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3.9

by Timothy Dolan - Aug. 18, 2009

Informative point of view. Nice witty reference to the "American Taliban" milling around outside of Obama's address to the VFW. My principle critique is with Juan's critique of the President's 3 key points on his strategic assessment in Afghanistan. Juan faults the President on not being more specific but this is not the audience for him to get even more professorial than he already tends to be in such venues. It was enough for him to just offer broad brushstrokes with the details lefft to the brain trust at the Pentagon and in the field.

We still don't know how to fight an Asian War. We don't have the stomach for it. It doesn't help to have a government in Afghanistan with no legitimacy. At the end of the day, our success or failure will turn on that single fact. Illegitimate regimes dogged us in Vietnam and dog us in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and any number of African states. I understand that the gambit is to hold onto things until effective governing institutions can be built in that region, but this nuance is lost on the Afghan people who see us as yet another occupier propping up a puppet regime.