Obama agenda: Afghanistan
Posted: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 9:37 AM by firstread
Filed Under:
White House, Security
Today, the president heads to the National Counterterrorism Center in an effort to highlight what is, essentially, the global war on al-Qaeda, though the administration hesitates to use the phrase "war on terror."
"Shortly after taking office, Obama discarded the term "global war on terror," along with some of its most controversial tools, and aides describe a president who has been deliberative in implementing his own security policy. He has come under fire for not abandoning some of George W. Bush's policies, such as warrantless wiretapping and rendition, and faced criticism for jettisoning others, including enhanced interrogation techniques and secret prisons."
Also today, President Obama meets with a bipartisan group of congressional leaders today to discuss the worsening situation in Afghanistan, The Hill reports. The session, which will include House Minority Leader John Boehner, Minority Whip Eric Cantor and Armed Services Committee ranking member Buck McKeon is "the first time in six months that House Republican leaders have been invited to the White House to discuss official business.
And press secretary Robert Gibbs "refused to rebuke Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the head of U.S. and NATO operations in Afghanistan who publicly advocated sending more troops to the region," after National Security Advisor Jim Jones said on this Sunday's morning talk shows that military leaders should be less vocal about their strategy preferences in Afghanistan. "Far be it from me to parse the words of a four-star general," Gibbs said of Jones.
The thwarted terrorist attack in NYC is an example, the White House tells us, of how the international intelligence gathered is used to help law enforcement officials here in the states.
Bush 41 National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft continues to be supportive of the direction of the Obama foreign policy but cautioned the administration on retreating in Afghanistan.
"He said Mr. Obama's choice of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal to lead U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan implied a commitment to defeating the Taliban insurgency as the best way of preventing terrorist attacks on the United States."
The Pentagon has some new elite units they are deploying to Afghanistan: experts on the tribal politics of the country.
BTW, there doesn't seem to be disagreement over whether the Taliban has gotten stronger in Afghanistan.
The relationship between Pakistan and the U.S. is partially responsible for what the Obama administration says is a successful stepped up effort to destroy top al-Qaeda leaders and yet Pakistani government officials seem hesitant allowing more U.S. presence in their country
Joe Violante, the national legislative director of the Disabled American Veterans, an advocacy group, has an “increasingly complex” job, as he now speaks not only for World War II, Vietnam, Korea and first Gulf War veterans, but also younger vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. This year may, however, bring a major success for the 59-year-old Vietnam vet: “Congress is on the cusp of approving advance appropriations for the Department of Veterans Affairs, which would ensure that injured soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and other veterans, have predictable medical-care funding. This would give the VA much more certainty over its funding, as it would know its budget a year in advance.” Over the past two decades, Congress “has routinely passed the agency’s funding late.”
On MSNBC’s “Way Too Early” today, General Barry McCaffrey, an MSNBC military analyst, told host Willie Geist that the viewpoint of General Stanley McChrystal, the coalition commander in Afghanistan who has publicized his recommendation of a troop increase there, is being politicized. “It seems to me that McChrystal isn’t a political animal anyway. He’s the best fighter we’ve produced in the last 25 years in the army and I think now his viewpoint is being manipulated in the Washington debate. So what else is new?”
In his keynote address at the 2009 Association of the U.S. Army Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington D.C. yesterday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that U.S. decisions on how best to move forward in Afghanistan should be taken only after advice from civilians and the military has been received ‘candidly and privately,’ Marine Corps Times writes, adding: “His comment on getting advice to the president “privately” could be interpreted as a knuckle rap for Afghanistan commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal, whose Afghanistan assessment document was leaked to the press.”
