Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Military officials' frustration rises over Afghan plans

Associated Press Sept. 22, 2009, 8:22PM — Military officials voiced frustration and congressional leaders urged caution Tuesday over what they described as President Barack Obama's shifting strategy in Afghanistan, six months after he committed thousands more U.S. troops. Administration officials maintained they were looking at all options — including more drones — to protect the U.S. and its allies by shutting down al-Qaida in bordering areas of Pakistan. Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is to affirm support for Afghanistan in a speech to the General Assembly today. “We are committed to seeing the Afghans through their long night,” he says in prepared remarks released Tuesday. Appearing on NBC's Today show Tuesday, former President Bill Clinton said he believes Obama is wise to rethink U.S. policy and should wait to send more troops until there is a resolution of the presidential election there. Critics at the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill said Tuesday the White House was in danger of taking its eye off the fight. They called on Obama to fulfill an anticipated request for more troops from the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal. “This leads me to urge you to waste no time in providing a clear direction to our commanders and civilian leaders, along with the resources necessary to achieve their mission,” House Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., wrote to Obama Tuesday. Skelton is the highest-ranking Democrat so far to support sending more troops to Afghanistan. Arizona Sen. John McCain, who has urged Obama to send more troops to Afghanistan, said Tuesday, “I've never seen a disconnect like this between the military leadership and the White House on an issue.”

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

McChrystal needs to shut up and color. Let's make sure this doesn't turn into another Iraq.

Anonymous said...

I have never seen foriegn policy conducted this way! Obama is definately an amateur.We have serious problems going on, & he's putting our troops in harms way!