Obama Vows US Troops to Stay in Afghanistan ‘Until the Job Is Done’

Emphasizes July 2011 Date Won't Mean End to War

In an interview today with the BBC’s Persian Television channel, President Barack Obama promised that the United States would not end the war in Afghanistan as a result of the July 2011 drawdown date.

Rather Obama insisted the war would continue “until the job is done”and went on to define the job as “to provide Afghans themselves the capacity to secure their own country.” He gave no indications of when he thought this might be.

But between record death tolls and deteriorating security, the situation in Afghanistan is getting worse, not better. The Afghan government, such as it is, is struggling to defend itself from growing evidence of massive fraud in its most recent election, and the faith of the public in the war effort, both in Afgfhanistan and abroad, seems to be getting worse all the time.

In fact the only US official to even broach the subject of how much longer the war might take was Gen. David Petraeus, who agreed that the war could take another decade. Even this seems to be little more than a guess, however, and officials seem to be trying hard to distance themselves from any firm date to end the war.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.