Obama ‘Pleased’ With Afghan War

Thursday Report Won't Include Any Policy Changes

Reiterating comments from yesterday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs insisted that no policy changes will be announced on Thursday and that the public version of the Afghan War report won’t include any surprises.

Gibbs termed President Obama ‘pleased’ with the war, and insisted that he hopes to “strengthen capacity inside of Afghanistan” going forward. President Obama was said to have met with advisors earlier today regarding the war.

Gibbs was quite short of evidence of the “progress” in the Afghan War, insisting only that it was “obvious.” He did reference improved cooperation with Pakistan, however, which is probably poorly timed as Admiral Mullen is in Pakistan today berating the government for not having invaded North Waziristan yet.

At no point in his comments did Gibbs mention the open letter from a collection of foreign policy experts warning that the war is going extremely poorly, and those comments are expected to be kept far from the official speech by President Obama on Thursday.

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.