Modern News

Contrary to the report released on November 9, 2009 by NBC Pentagon Correspondent, David Martin, Obama has not made a decision to send more troops to Afghanistan.

The original story stated that Obama was planning to send “close to 40,000 troops” and quoted these numbers from “an informed source”.

Within hours of the story’s release on Monday, National Security Advisor, James Jones fired back: “Reports that President Obama has made a decision about Afghanistan are absolutely false. He has not received final options for his consideration, he has not reviewed those options with his national security team, and he has not made any decisions about resources. Any reports to the contrary are completely untrue and come from uninformed sources.”

White House Press Secretary Gibbs has stated that a decision is unlikely until after Obama returns from his Asia trip on November 20.  Gibbs also rebuffed reports of a decision by saying that anyone reporting that the president has made a decision “doesn’t have, in all honesty, the slightest idea what they’re talking about.”

General McChrystal’s report to the Joint Chiefs in which he asked for more troops within the next year was first released by the Washington Post on September 21, 2009.  McChrystal stated that the eight year Afghanistan War will “likely result in failure” without the needed troop infusion.

Obama has repeatedly come under fire for dragging his feet on strategy in Afghanistan.  After McChrystal’s report was released in unclassified form, House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement that he was “deeply troubled . . . by reports that the White House is delaying action on the General’s request for more troops”.  Boehner questioned the “integrated civilian-military counterinsurgency” Obama himself set in motion. “It’s time for the President to clarify where he stands on the strategy he has articulated,” Boehner said, “because the longer we wait the more we put our troops at risk.”

Former Vice President Dick Cheney at the end of October accused Obama of being afraid.  “Having announced his Afghanistan strategy last March, President Obama now seems afraid to make a decision, and unable to provide his commander on the ground with the troops he needs to complete his mission,” Cheney said October 22 during a speech at the Center for Security Policy.

“It’s time for President Obama to make good on his promise,” the former vice president added. “The White House must stop dithering while America’s armed forces are in danger.”

In a November 2, 2009 Rasumussen poll, 57% believe the situation in Afghanistan will worsen in the next six months. This number has been worsening since June. Only 13% say the situation in Afghanistan will be better six months from now, and 20% think it will be about the same.

While the Democrats are applauding Obama’s slow and deliberate course to a decision about Afghanistan, Republicans are upset and questioning the President’s tactics.

“I hope he makes it soon, because there’s 68,000 men and women at risk right now,” said Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (Tenn.). “And he needs to come to Congress and explain it.”

Sen. Richard Lugar (Ind.), ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee went a bit further and said that only about 15,000 troops are currently available so any deployment would of necessity take place over a year.

Obama left for Asia today and with his administration deflecting all information on a decision, the troops in Afghanistan and the American people are on hold, hoping for a Thanksgiving miracle.

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