Senator Barack Obama spent his first day in Afghanistan yesterday visiting the troops, talking to soldiers, and speaking with their commanders. Today he met privately with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan.
After talking to both sides, his assessment is that the situation in Afghanistan is both precarious and urgent. He said that the U.S. has to start planning to put more troops in Afghanistan now.
Obama: "For at least a year now, I have called for two additional brigades, perhaps three," he said. "I think it's very important that we unify command more effectively to coordinate our military activities. But military alone is not going to be enough.
"The Afghan government needs to do more. But we have to understand that the situation is precarious and urgent here in Afghanistan. And I believe this has to be our central focus, the central front, on our battle against terrorism."
Logan: "Why does it have to be the central focus? What is so critical to U.S. interests here?"
Obama: "This is where they can plan attacks. They have sanctuary here. They are gathering huge amounts of money as a consequence of the drug trade in the region. And so that global network is centered in this area. And I think one of the biggest mistakes we've made strategically after 9/11 was to fail to finish the job here, focus our attention here. We got distracted by Iraq.
"And despite what the Bush Administration has argued, I don't think there's any doubt that we were distracted from our efforts not only to hunt down al-Qaeda and the Taliban, but also to rebuild this country so that people have confidence that we were to here to stay over the long haul, that we were going to rebuild roads, provide electricity, improve the quality of life for people. And now we have a chance, I think, to correct some of those areas.
"There's starting to be a broad consensus that it's time for us to withdraw some of our combat troops out of Iraq, deploy them here in Afghanistan. And I think we have to seize that opportunity. Now's the time for us to do it.
"I think what's important for us to do is to begin planning for those brigades now. If we wait until the next administration, it could be a year before we get those additional troops on the ground here in Afghanistan. And I think that would be a mistake. I think the situation is getting urgent enough that we've got to start doing something now.
"The United States has to take a regional approach to the problem. Just as we can't be myopic and focus only on Iraq, we also can't think that we can solve the security problems here in Afghanistan without engaging the Pakistan government."
Logan: "And how do you compel Pakistan to act?"
Obama: "Well, you know, I think that the U.S. government provides an awful lot of aid to Pakistan, provides a lot of military support to Pakistan. And to send a clear message to Pakistan that this is important, to them as well as to us, I think that message has not been sent."
Logan: "Under what circumstances would you authorize unilateral U.S. action against targets inside tribal areas?"
Obama: "What I've said is that if we had actionable intelligence against high-value al-Qaeda targets, and the Pakistani government was unwilling to go after those targets, that we should. My hope is that it doesn't come to that - that in fact, the Pakistan government would recognize that if we had Osama bin Laden in our sights that we should fire or we should capture him."
Logan: "Would you take out all those training camps?"
Obama: "I will push Pakistan very hard to make sure that we go after those training camps. I think it's absolutely vital to the security interests for both the United States and Pakistan."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/20/ftn/main4275864.shtml
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Come on Obama, Your pulling troops out of Iraq but going to bomb iran, your speaking with a forked tongue
iranwarcom 1 month ago
and how much did that token visit cost us???????
buddymacs 6 months ago
"Our president likes to be on both sides at once.
...In Afghanistan, he wants to go but he wants to stay. He’s surging and withdrawing simultaneously. He’s leaving fewer troops than are needed for a counterinsurgency strategy and more troops than are needed for a counterterrorism strategy — and he seems to want both strategies at the same time. Our work is done but we have to still be there. Our work isn’t done but we can go." --Maureen Dowd, New York Times, June 26, 2011
hookalakah 7 months ago
Quit nice, talking about human wrights, but most of the people are killed in Pakistan. Just on the name of, Osama Bin Laden, everyday drone attacks are happening but who care's for these people. If osama bin laden found or killed or even seen, in Pakistan does not mean we follow him we Pakistanis are a peace loving nation.
Please I’m requesting stop killing women, men, children.
sajjad4760 9 months ago
THERE'S NO WAY TO PEACE, PEACE IS THE WAY
Redcaster916 10 months ago
@Igotcha06 well enjoy, thanks for serving. Noticed you had a black power symbol on your profile. You're just an angry man!
TheTrueGamble 11 months ago
@TheTrueGamble piece of meat lol really? anyway i am going to enlist but who enlists to go and fight for the president? im fight for my country.but think what you want,your just another troubled child whos mad that we have A Black President
Igotcha06 11 months ago
@Igotcha06 he lied, enlist is the army and defend that piece of shit. You too will feel like the president thinks of you as a disposable piece of meat.
TheTrueGamble 11 months ago
ok about 15,000 ppl died during 9/11 (includes 3000 on plane and the ppl in the towers + emergency ppl on duty at the time) ---there were 19 terrorists in total
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US declares war on afghan and iraq. Bombs the hell out of both countries and then invades. Americans have troops stationed all over afghanistan and iraq and they've been there for 9 years. WHAT have they accomplished?
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if america bombed my country then invaded and stayed around for 9 years I'd start killing americans too
vict0r1ous 1 year ago 2
@Igotcha06
i think the point of having a black president was that the 'lynchings' and 'slayings' were irrelevant, and that any person can be president regardless of their background, just as all presidents and responcible for the actions they do and do not commits : )
jesusmcnugget1111 1 year ago