Community | September 04, 2009 | 20 comments

Obama Urged to Rally Support for War

source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125201944159884863.html

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WASHINGTON -- The White House is facing mounting pressure from lawmakers to work harder to rally flagging public support for the war in Afghanistan.

With casualties rising, the administration is struggling to persuade voters that the war can be won or is worth the human and financial costs. Afghanistan is President Barack Obama's top foreign-policy priority, but recent polls show that a majority of voters oppose the war for the first time since the conflict began eight years ago.

With public support for the Afghan war falling rapidly, the Obama administration is getting pushed to focus less on health care and more on Afghanistan. WSJ's Yochi Dreazen reports.

The politics of the war are getting trickier for key American allies as well. A junior minister in Britain's Ministry of Defense resigned Thursday, criticizing his government's strategy in Afghanistan on the eve of a major speech by Prime Minister Gordon Brown about Britain's efforts there.

In the U.S., a growing number of lawmakers say that Mr. Obama needs to make the case for Afghanistan more forcefully -- and more frequently -- than he has done to date.

"The president, unfortunately, because of the crush of everything else, hasn't talked about Afghanistan all that much," said Sen. Bob Casey, a centrist Democrat from Pennsylvania, in an interview. "There's so much on his plate that it has an adverse impact on his ability to spend enough time on Afghanistan."

The president's most extensive recent comments about Afghanistan came in an Aug. 17 speech to a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Phoenix, where he devoted less than three minutes of a half-hour speech to a conflict he described as "a war of necessity." Since then, most of Mr. Obama's public remarks have focused on health care.
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20 comments // Obama Urged to Rally Support for War

  • fun_size
    • 0
      fun_size  

    • Personally i think if we really want to capture Bin Laden and fight Al Qaeda we need to send significantly more troops to Afghanistan. If not then lets just GET THE FUCK OUT!

    • 2 years ago
  • S3th
  • samthesixth
    • 0
      samthesixth  
    • fun_size:

      I agree with you. Since we don't have the political will to really go after Bin Laden, pull the troops out. The afghanis can have whatever society they want---but we can't be their army.

    • 2 years ago
  • S3th
    • 0
      S3th  

    • How in the f@ck did Obama go from promising to get us out of all this shit, to trying to get us to support it. He must think we are all a bunch of ADD mofos! Maybe that's what the Swine Flu vaccine will accomplish. We'll all forget his promises he made prior to getting elected!

      WTF!

    • 2 years ago
  • DeliaTheArtist
  • DeliaTheArtist
    • 0
      DeliaTheArtist  

    • I'm not saying I am pro-war - but I don't remember Obama saying he was going to withdraw from Afghanistan, I remember him saying he was going to withdraw from Iraq to focus MORE on Afghanistan. Now I think he should take public opinion into consideration, but the idea that he promised to end all of these wars is untrue.

    • 2 years ago
  • fun_size
  • samthesixth
  • DeliaTheArtist
    • 0
      DeliaTheArtist  
    • DeliaTheArtist:

      Well, the question here did indeed seem to be what he said- many posters seem to think he promised an end to the Afghan war when he campaigned with the exact opposite message.

      Frankly it seems like it's an unwinnable war and we are not doing much good for any country involved. Afghanistan has been no better due to our presence, and recently many people have come out to say we either can't win or we need to drastically change our idea of what that means- Mike Mullen recently wrote an article in which he said our credibility, among other things, is being ruined from this war (http://current.com/items/90808443_us-admiral-blasts-strategic-communication-effo...) He says "Good communication runs both ways. It's not about telling our story. We must also be better listeners."

      I think we'd do well to take that advice!

    • 2 years ago
  • asherp
  • futuregen
    • 0
      futuregen  

    • Turn It Off.......Boston

      I'm conscious of liars that cross my path
      The sinners ambitious to rule this land
      The gardens are dead and the walls have bled
      People betrayed in a secret rage

      Turn it off, somebody's asking me
      Turn it off, somebody hears
      Turn it off, somebody's asking me
      Turn it off, somebody show a better way

      The system's in distress
      We feel the consequence, yeah
      Sinners and liars have crossed my path
      There's simple disgrace from the souls of man
      My sister's in rags and her babe's in pain

      Turn it off, somebody's asking me
      Turn it off, somebody hears
      Turn it off, somebody's asking me
      Turn it off, somebody hears
      Turn it off

      Don't hear the words I'm preaching
      If you deny the times of tribulation
      Don't read the words I've given
      If you believe there's sides to revelations
      Life that once was taken brings a million lives to isolation
      Brings a million lives to isolation

      Turn it off, somebody's asking me
      Turn it off, somebody hears
      Turn it off, somebody's asking me
      Turn it off, somebody hears
      Turn it off

      I'm conscious of liars that cross my path
      The sinners ambitious to rule this land
      The gardens are dead and the walls have bled

    • 2 years ago
  • unclecharlie
    • 0
      unclecharlie  

    • Rally Support for the War! How ya gonna do that? Down to the streetcorner, "Hey, we'll pay you 8 bucks an hour to stand there and hold this sign!" Because that's the ONLY way you'll see any support for this mindless, endless war that serves no purpose whatsoever. Hopefully, this will be Obama's Vietnam. We need out of there NOW.

    • 2 years ago
  • samthesixth
  • chasingame
    • 0
      chasingame  

    • Here is a novel idea that no one has tried yet. DO WHAT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WANT YOU TO DO! Don't try to change our minds to fit other peoples agenda.

    • 2 years ago
  • samthesixth
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  

    • WHO'S YOUR DADY NOW US DEMOCRACY ?

      THE GREAT PRETENDER
      MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR HYPOCRISY
      http://mtwsfh.blogspot.com/

      "It is a tragic mix-up when the United States spends $500,000 for every enemy soldier killed, and only $53 annually on the victims of poverty.": Martin Luther King, Jr. - 1929-1968

      "I believe that if we had and would keep our dirty, bloody, dollar-soaked fingers out of the business of these nations so full of depressed, exploited people, they will arrive at a solution of their own -- and if unfortunately their revolution must be of the violent type because the "haves" refuse to share with the "have-nots" by any peaceful method, at least what they get will be their own, and not the American style, which they don't want and above all don't want crammed down their throats by Americans. ": -- General David M. Shoup - Commandant of the Marine Corps 1960-63, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor - Source: May 14, 1966

      "To initiate a war of aggression...is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." - Nuremberg tribunal

      “It’s here that the American dream decided it liked the taste of the vomit it was chocking on. Just rolled over on its back and screamed for more drugs. it didn't die.“ - Warren Ellis

      A Big media induced nation of village idiots cheers on ?

    • 2 years ago
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • Just why are we there again?

      Help work on TAPI pipeline? Check.

      Put an end to opium competition? Check.

      Make sure companies like Monsanto get their foot in the door? Check.

      We need to leave now. The only 'winning' being done is by those becoming stronger from the deaths of civilians and the corporate leeches.

      This is a 'war of necessity." Is that a Bush line?
      And what happened to the anti-war movement that was so vocal while Bush was squatting in the White House? Awful quiet of late.

    • 2 years ago
  • asherp
  • JanforGore
  • asherp
    • 0
      asherp  

    • The Military Industrial Complex:
      "Hey Mr Anti-War president... since we donated so many millions to your campaign... yeah... could you do us a favor? It's just a small thing... For some reason these unending wars that you were elected for promising to stop... They aren't popular.
      Since you can do no wrong in the eyes of many liberals, could you tell your liberal base that these wars are actually good?"

    • 2 years ago
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