Obama Afghanistan Address Speech Excerpts
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THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 1, 2009
Excerpts of the President’s Address to the Nation
“The 30,000 additional troops that I am announcing tonight will deploy in the first part of 2010 – the fastest pace possible – so that they can target the insurgency and secure key population centers. They will increase our ability to train competent Afghan Security Forces, and to partner with them so that more Afghans can get into the fight. And they will help create the conditions for the United States to transfer responsibility to the Afghans.”
“Because this is an international effort, I have asked that our commitment be joined by contributions from our allies. Some have already provided additional troops, and we are confident that there will be further contributions in the days and weeks ahead. Our friends have fought and bled and died alongside us in Afghanistan. Now, we must come together to end this war successfully. For what’s at stake is not simply a test of NATO’s credibility – what’s at stake is the security of our Allies, and the common security of the world.”
“Taken together, these additional American and international troops will allow us to accelerate handing over responsibility to Afghan forces, and allow us to begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011. Just as we have done in Iraq, we will execute this transition responsibly, taking into account conditions on the ground. We will continue to advise and assist Afghanistan’s Security Forces to ensure that they can succeed over the long haul. But it will be clear to the Afghan government – and, more importantly, to the Afghan people – that they will ultimately be responsible for their own country.”
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11 Responses to “Obama Afghanistan Address Speech Excerpts”
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‘But it will be clear to the Afghan government – and, more importantly, to the Afghan people – that they will ultimately be responsible for their own country.’
Still no mention of the pipeline, the ultimate motive driving foreign interests in Afghanistan since the Soviets, and likely even before them.
Does anyone really believe the Afghan security forces, like the Iraqis before them, can EVER successfully be rid of the vast numbers of ‘insurgent’ sympathizers which have infiltrated their ranks, united by their shared hatred of foreign meddling in their country?
3 years from now, does anyone actually believe the situation in Afghanistan will be any different than it is today?
Bush ignored it for over 7 years, leading to the nightmare facing Obama and NATO today; he’s calling for another 3 year commitment on top of the year he’s had to lead the conflict; 4 years in total to clean up the mess created by 7 years of incompetence in a region which already despises the presence of foreign troops, and that’s not even including the Pakistani element.
The odds do not favor the West in this unreal fiasco.
30,000 troops, but they’re out in 18 months. WTF?
No, I don’t think that 3 years from now things will be any different than they are today … ok, well, there will be one difference … we’ll have a lot more young men and women that will have lost their lives.
I’m curious what calculus you’re using to arrive at your WTF.
(a) It’s not like he’s moving 30,000 in and out all at once. The deadline is when the troop reduction begins.
(b) This is not enough time only if the strategy to utilize these troops is unsound. Thousands of troops used smartly could accomplish a great deal.
“deploy in the first part of 2010″
“transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011″
You can’t drop 30,000 troops into Afghanistan in January. It will take months to have them all in place. It took about 5 months for the troop surge to be in place in Iraq. So, you’re at least 4 months into 2010 for all of the troops to be in place if they started deploying today. 8 months left of 2010 & 7 months of 2011 until they start pulling out is roughly 15 months. 18 months is being generous. It’s taken years to get the Iraqis up to speed and Afghanistan is even more of a basket case.
Just pull the f!@# out. We tried. We Failed. We’re broke. It’s time to come home. Especially if your side wants to spend trillions on “healthcare”. We can’t afford both. We can’t afford either one quite frankly.
How long can they conceivably stay William?
Yea just pull out….after your guys had 7 years to get sh*t done and did not. Do you really think we should do what you say? NO,I think not.
The thing is President Obama is giving his generals what they what (30,000 troops), but letting them know that 30,000 troops are the end all when it come to that war. If they can’t do what they need to do with those 30,000 troops then by the end of 2011 they come home officially.
Just because Bush had troops in Afghanistan for years (basically not doing much) doesn’t mean that this can’t be accomplish in 18 months.
‘We Failed. We’re broke. It’s time to come home. Especially if your side wants to spend trillions on “healthcare”. We can’t afford both. We can’t afford either one quite frankly.’
You couldn’t afford one war, let alone two; now you have two wars that weren’t funded and weren’t accounted for in successive budgets for years, resulting in a host of issues facing the US that need to be dealt with, which have only been compounded by American interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Yet still there are those who claim this President is a failure, even when all of these issues were left for him to contend with by the most witless, incompetent and unaccountable administration in the history of the country.
Obama’s speech made it clear that he will try and end the war and bring troops home, just as he has tried to do in Iraq, responsibly and within a reasonable time frame, but that he also feels committed to stabilizing both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Whether that is even possible after Bush allowed both nations to devolve into a haven for Islamic extremism by pouring all the attention, manpower and economic resources the US could muster into the giant clusterfuck of Iraq, is very much in doubt.
I’ve been saying for years that there are simply no good options left in Afghanistan and now Pakistan because of this; there will be no winning and no victory, only degrees of losing.
Whether Obama escalates or de-escalates, the choices left are from bad to worse, and there is no one more to blame for that than George Bush.
Freedom’s on the march my ass.
Was that speech Obama or Linden B. Johnson talking about Vietnam? How long is it going to take the public to realize the government is full of shit this time?
At this point, i think we would be better off with Bush. I have lost all faith in Obama.
‘At this point, i think we would be better off with Bush. I have lost all faith in Obama.’
Ummm…..what? You’d be better off with the witless jackass that got you into this mess?
Here’s a clue; no you wouldn’t.