Obama's Pitch Part Two - Afghanistan

Its the day folks that President Obama has to sell the War in Afghanistan to the American voter, the White House has released some of what POTUS will tell his audience around the world. The President will say some of the following, " The 30,000 additional troops that I am announcing tonight will deploy in the first part of 2010 – the fastest pace possible – so that they can target the insurgency and secure key population centers. They will increase our ability to train competent Afghan Security Forces, and to partner with them so that more Afghans can get into the fight. And they will help create the conditions for the United States to transfer responsibility to the Afghans.” Its a mistake to give the impression that you want out, shows weakness, the Taliban will use this to get the people of Afghanistan to support them over the USA, they will argue that Obama's heart is not in the War. “Because this is an international effort, I have asked that our commitment be joined by contributions from our allies. Some have already provided additional troops, and we are confident that there will be further contributions in the days and weeks ahead. Our friends have fought and bled and died alongside us in Afghanistan. Now, we must come together to end this war successfully. For what’s at stake is not simply a test of NATO’s credibility – what’s at stake is the security of our Allies, and the common security of the world.” The Allies in NATO DON'T want to send troops to Afghanistan, that is the price the USA agreed to pay when it become the leader of the West, the UK will have ten thousand troops in Afghanistan by next year, no more folks, lets see if we can win with this second Obama surge. “Taken together, these additional American and international troops will allow us to accelerate handing over responsibility to Afghan forces, and allow us to begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011. Just as we have done in Iraq, we will execute this transition responsibly, taking into account conditions on the ground. We will continue to advise and assist Afghanistan’s Security Forces to ensure that they can succeed over the long haul. But it will be clear to the Afghan government – and, more importantly, to the Afghan people – that they will ultimately be responsible for their own country.” It is a massive mistake in military terms to set out an end date, the Taliban can either wait Obama out or create havoc, think another Tet offensive ( 1968 ). On the political front the Republicans will say that it shows that Obama does not have his heart in the fight, but they will support the move, worse for Obama the Liberal left could see him as another Bush 43. The date set for the start of the end is conditional on the theatre of War, thus liberals wanted a hard end date, they will not be happy. This is now more than ever is Obama's War, if it goes South on him he will be a one term President, he wont seek re-election in 2012, its that crucial folks, if he wins in Afghanistan he gets a second term, that simple and very political.