Nearly three months after General Stanley McChrystal went public with his request for more troops for Afghanistan, President Barack Obama is still not close to making a decision on just how large of an escalation he will approve.
Vagueness has been a consistent theme from the start, with officials bouncing between promising a decision “soon” and insisting that no decision was forthcoming. Today, the White House says that President Obama won’t make a decision until at least after Thanksgiving.
In an interview yesterday, President Obama said he expects to make an announcement at some point in the “next several weeks,” but even then he was vague on if that would happen. With Thanksgiving gone it seems the real question is if the escalation will be announced by Christmas.
After his disastrous escalation earlier this year, President Obama has been reluctant to announce his intentions in the increasingly unpopular war. At the same time, officials have made it clear time and again that the various “options” he was considering were all escalations of varying sizes, and that at no point was serious consideration given to leaving Afghanistan or even reducing the military’s presence.
its time to say good bye afghanistan
It is time to say that it is great that Obama has not caved to pressure from the Pentagon – who have been outrageously insubordinate in leaking McChrystal's terrible plan and then springing a new leak every few days about how many troops Obama is going to send. The latest came earlier this week when they said he would decide before Thanksgiving. I hope that he does not make his decision before meeting with the Nobel committee in December. The closer to the date of the Nobel Prize – the better for America and for Afghanistan.
Well, that would be good also. Its better not to give chance to the Afghans.
Jane