tagged w/ Exit Strategy
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By Sajjad Shaukat
Despite continued blame game of the US against Pakistan which shows differences among the high officials of the Obama Administration, a positive shift has taken place in the US South Asian policy after the recent visit of the US Secretary of State to Islamabad.
Political thinker, Morgenthau remarks that foreign policy of a country must be moulded in accordance with the exigency of time and place. In these terms, even if US does not change its policy in this region, it will have to do so in the near future. Nonetheless, it seems that a prospective shift has taken place in the US South Asian policy.
http://www.newscenterpk.com/shift-in-us-south-asian-policy.htmlBy Sajjad Shaukat
Despite continued blame game of the US against Pakistan which... more
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For a first-time startup, when the real excitement of early innovation is happening, the daunting business of M&A is usually the last thing on anyone’s mind. But research is showing that the later it starts, the higher the riskFor a first-time startup, when the real excitement of early innovation is happening,... more
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Congress claims no constituents bother to call them about H.R. 5015, a bill that would set up an Afghanistan exit strategy. In other words we are staying in this war because YOU WANT TO.Congress claims no constituents bother to call them about H.R. 5015, a bill that would... more
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Why watch the speech alone on TV when you can hang out with more than 11,000 people like you who want the Afghanistan war to end? Join the other fans of Rethink Afghanistan and watch the speech on our Facebook fan page [http://facebook.com/RethinkAfghanistan].
* Rethink Afghanistan’s fan page will have a live stream of a part of Rethink Afghanistan (The Cost of War) prior to the speech at 8:30 p.m. Eastern / 5:30 p.m. Pacific.
* Then, we’ll carry a live stream of the State of the Union address.
* Brave New Foundation’s Robert Greenwald will be there for the conversation, and I’ll provide commentary and links to Afghanistan-related information.
* After the speech, our whole mob will head over to the White House’s Facebook page to share our thoughts on his Afghanistan comments.
We hope you’ll join us tomorrow night starting at 8:30 p.m. Eastern / 5:30 p.m. Pacific as our community gathers to rethink the State of the Union.Why watch the speech alone on TV when you can hang out with more than 11,000 people... more
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From: http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/facebook-war-protest/
"An organization called Rethink Afghanistan has executed a widespread war protest on the White House’s Facebook page.
It began with a drive for 20,000 signatures at Rethink Afghanistan’s website, but folks who added their signatures were also given instructions for participating in the Facebook (Facebook) protest.
Hundreds of people have posted the following message or something very close to it to the White House page:
'President Obama, I am one of more than 20,000 signers of this petition from Rethink Afghanistan: ‘In your State of the Union address on January 27, 2010, I want you to provide a concrete exit strategy for our troops in Afghanistan that begins no later than July 2011 and which completes a withdrawal of combat troops no later than July 1, 2012.’ Petition: http://bit.ly/7romlW'
Rethink Afghanistan has also set up a Ustream embed on its own Facebook page, where it will air the anti-war documentary Cost of War with an introduction by Robert Greenwald at 7:15 p.m. EST tonight. After the one-hour documentary, Greenwald will answer questions leading up to the president’s State of the Union, which will also stream on the Facebook page."From: http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/facebook-war-protest/
"An organization... more
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"What we can't do is think that just a military approach in Afghanistan is going to solve our problems.... There's got to be an exit strategy." - President Obama.
ReThink Afghanistan launches a new campaign to petition President Obama to specify an clear exit strategy from Afghanistan in his upcoming State of the Union Address, as he promised."What we can't do is think that just a military approach in Afghanistan is... more
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Next Wednesday, President Obama will give his first State of the Union address. It's a safe bet he'll discuss the Afghanistan war. You probably recall that the President recently committed to start drawing down troops in Afghanistan in July 2011.
Setting a target date for the start of a withdrawal is a good step, but if we are going to make the president's commitment into a reality, we need a concrete exit strategy.
Tell President Obama to lay out an exit strategy and timetable for the War in Afghanistan in his State of the Union address. Sign the petition at: http://rethinkafghanistan.com/Next Wednesday, President Obama will give his first State of the Union address.... more
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WASHINGTON — On the afternoon he held the eighth meeting of his Afghanistan review, President Obama arrived in the White House Situation Room ruminating about war. He had come from Arlington National Cemetery, where he had wandered among the chalky white tombstones of those who had fallen in the rugged mountains of Central Asia.
How much their sacrifice weighed on him that Veterans Day last month, he did not say. But his advisers say he was haunted by the human toll as he wrestled with what to do about the eight-year-old war. Just a month earlier, he had mentioned to them his visits to wounded soldiers at the Army hospital in Washington. “I don’t want to be going to Walter Reed for another eight years,” he said then.
The economic cost was troubling him as well after he received a private budget memo estimating that an expanded presence would cost $1 trillion over 10 years, roughly the same as his health care plan. Now as his top military adviser ran through a slide show of options, Mr. Obama expressed frustration. He held up a chart showing how reinforcements would flow into Afghanistan over 18 months and eventually begin to pull out, a bell curve that meant American forces would be there for years to come.
“I want this pushed to the left,” he told advisers, pointing to the bell curve. In other words, the troops should be in sooner, then out sooner.
When the history of the Obama presidency is written, that day with the chart may prove to be a turning point, the moment a young commander in chief set in motion a high-stakes gamble to turn around a losing war. By moving the bell curve to the left, Mr. Obama decided to send 30,000 troops mostly in the next six months and then begin pulling them out a year after that, betting that a quick jolt of extra forces could knock the enemy back on its heels enough for the Afghans to take over the fight.
The three-month review that led to the escalate-then-exit strategy is a case study in decision making in the Obama White House — intense, methodical, rigorous, earnest and at times deeply frustrating for nearly all involved. It was a virtual seminar in Afghanistan and Pakistan, led by a president described by one participant as something “between a college professor and a gentle cross-examiner.”
Mr. Obama peppered advisers with questions and showed an insatiable demand for information, taxing analysts who prepared three dozen intelligence reports for him and Pentagon staff members who churned out thousands of pages of documents.
This account of how the president reached his decision is based on dozens of interviews with participants as well as a review of notes some of them took during Mr. Obama’s 10 meetings with his national security team. Most of those interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, but their accounts have been matched against those of other participants wherever possible.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/world/asia/06reconstruct.html?hpWASHINGTON — On the afternoon he held the eighth meeting of his Afghanistan... more
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Oops. Looks like the corporate media missed a few major points. In fact, they lied. Obama will have sent 50,000 more troops to Afghanistan. The latest announcement for 30,000 more is the largest ever. Note that when he mentions (in political doublespeak) that he will pull out in 2011, he is very careful to add the disclaimer that the pullout will depend on the situation. In other words, there is no definite plan for any pullout. It's all rhetoric to win over non-thinking TV viewers. Meanwhile people are protesting all over the country with minimal media coverage if any at all.
http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/?p=72310Oops. Looks like the corporate media missed a few major points. In fact, they lied.... more
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WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to lay out a specific timetable for how he sees the American war in Afghanistan ultimately ending when he announces his decision this week to send more forces, senior administration officials said Sunday.
Although the speech was still in draft form, the officials said the president wanted to use the address at the United States Military Academy at West Point on Tuesday night to convey his exit strategy and not just the immediate order to deploy roughly 30,000 more troops.
“It’s accurate to say that he will be more explicit about both goals and time frame than has been the case before and than has been part of the public discussion,” said a senior official, who requested anonymity to discuss the speech before it is delivered. “He wants to give a clear sense of both the time frame for action and how the war will eventually wind down.”
The officials would not disclose the timetable or how it will be framed. But they said it would not be tied to particular conditions on the ground nor would it be as firm as the current schedule for drawing down troops in Iraq, where Mr. Obama has committed to withdrawing most combat units by August and all forces by the end of 2011.
Some leading members of Congress talked publicly Sunday about their hope that the president would explain an endgame for American involvement in the eight-year war in Afghanistan that includes how Afghans will assume more of their own security needs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/world/asia/30policy.html?hpWASHINGTON — President Obama plans to lay out a specific timetable for how he... more
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Why did the man who accused Karzai of corruption and contested the Afghan presidential election results as fraudulent voluntarily withdraw from what was to be this weekend's run-off election?
According to one report by CBS, Abdullah said 'he made his decision after Karzai turned down his demands for changes to the Independent Election Commission and other measures that he said would prevent massive fraud, which marred the first round of balloting on Aug. 20.'
However, an Asia Times report tells a different story. According to their report which was online yesterday, Abdullah Abdullah was pressured by the U.S. to withdraw from the race in order to put in place an American/Pakistani strategy that would allow the U.S to leave Afghanistan without 'losing face'. The Pakistani army, who views Abdullah as pro-Indian, has agreed to mediate between the Taliban and the U.S. so as to produce this face saving exit strategy. Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2086-Foreign-Policy-Examiner~y2009m11d7-US-pressured-Abdullah-Abdullah-to-withdraw-from-presidential-raceWhy did the man who accused Karzai of corruption and contested the Afghan presidential... more
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BAGHDAD - Most US troops have moved outside Iraqi cities and the American pull-out from the country's urban centres, due by the end of the month, is on schedule, the top US commander said on Monday.
General Ray Odierno added that American forces will leave the restive northern city of Mosul as well.
[A US soldier carries a box of belongings as his unit prepares to hand control of the base to the Iraqi army in Baghdad's Sadr city on June 11, 2009. Most US troops have moved outside Iraqi cities and the American pull-out from the country's urban centres, due by the end of the month, is on schedule, the top US commander said.(AFP)]A US soldier carries a box of belongings as his unit prepares to hand control of the base to the Iraqi army in Baghdad's Sadr city on June 11, 2009. Most US troops have moved outside Iraqi cities and the American pull-out from the country's urban centres, due by the end of the month, is on schedule, the top US commander said.(AFP)
"The dark days of previous years are behind us," Odierno told reporters at a press conference in Baghdad. "It is a fitting time that our combat forces move out."
He added that US forces "have been slowly withdrawing from the cities for the last six months", and said "the majority of US forces are already out of the cities".
Under a landmark security accord signed in November between Baghdad and Washington, US forces must leave Iraqi cities by the end of this month, and all of Iraq by the end of 2011.
Asked how many US troops would remain in urban centres in training or advisory capacities after the June 30 deadline, Odierno said he could not give specific details, but said the number would be "very small".
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh, who was also at the press conference along with Defence Minister Abdul Qader Obeidi and Interior Minister Jawad Bolani, added that the number of US troops in Iraqi cities would "change according to need".
There had been concerns that US forces would have to remain in Mosul, seen as the last stronghold of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Odierno disputed this, insisting his forces will leave Mosul by the end of June.
"We had reservations (about the situation in Mosul) a few months ago," he said. "I feel much more comfortable now, where we are in Mosul."
He added that it was "time for us to leave all Iraqi cities, to include Mosul."
Colonel Gary Volesky, the top US officer in Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital, told AFP on Sunday that he had "a number of plans but, right now, I am wired to nothing."
Volesky, commander of the US Army's 3rd Brigade 1st Cavalry Division and in charge of around 3,500 troops, said he had "not been told what they want yet, so we are unadvised."
He said attacks on Iraqi and US forces in Mosul were averaging five a day, with between 30 to 40 percent of those attacks targeting American troops.
Five combat outposts in Mosul remain to be handed over to Iraqi security forces but plans were in place for them to be transferred by the end of the month, Volesky said.
Odierno said the United States had so far handed over 142 bases to Iraqi control, with 320 still remaining, but did not specify how many of the remaining bases were in Iraqi cities.
Iraqi defence ministry spokesman Major General Mohammed al-Askari told AFP last week that American forces had transferred 120 out of 157 bases in Iraqi cities.
Though violence has dropped considerably in recent months -- May saw the fewest Iraqi deaths from violence since the US-led invasion in 2003 -- attacks remain common in Iraq, especially in Baghdad and Mosul.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki warned last week that attacks could increase in the coming weeks, because the US withdrawal at the end of the month would be a lightning rod for insurgents and militias seeking to undermine confidence in the Iraqi security forces.BAGHDAD - Most US troops have moved outside Iraqi cities and the American pull-out... more
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