Posted on 11/25/2009 1:36:58 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will not be in Afghanistan eight years from now, the White House said on Wednesday, as President Barack Obama prepared to explain to Americans next week why he is expanding the war effort.
After months of deliberation and fending off Republican charges that he was dithering on Afghanistan while violence there surged, Obama will address the nation on Tuesday on the way forward in the costly and unpopular eight-year war.
He is expected to announce he is sending about 30,000 more troops as part of a new counterinsurgency strategy that will place greater emphasis on accelerating the training of Afghan security forces so that U.S. soldiers can eventually withdraw.
It appears highly unlikely Obama will offer a specific troop withdrawal timetable, but White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president would stress that the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan was not open-ended.
"We are in year nine of our efforts in Afghanistan. We are not going to be there another eight or nine years," Gibbs told reporters. "Our time there will be limited and that is important for people to understand," he said.
He said Obama would use his prime-time televised speech to stress the "sheer cost" of the war, explain to Americans why their military was still in Afghanistan, and press Afghan President Hamid Karzai to improve governance after being re-elected in a fraud-tainted vote in August.
"The American people are going to want to know why we are here, they are going to want to know what our interests are," Gibbs said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrives for his swearing in ceremony on November 19. Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has rejected a call from Karzai for peace talks, in a statement issued ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. (AFP/File/Shah Marai)
And we’ll be out of Kosovo by Christmas 1995.
Karzai just said 5 years...and right after that, Obama said 2 or 3 years. Now we’re at 2017???
Nuclear meltdown at DU and Kos.
President Barack Obama vowed Tuesday to "finish the job" in Afghanistan and promised to unveil a decision soon on sending tens of thousands more US troops to battle Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Duration: 00: 36(AFPTV/POOL)
Is this news or editorializing?
Maybe Rooters ain't a real news orgainzation!
Another Prime Time news event to Blame Bush once again
LMAO!!! Good!
US Marines of 2nd Battalion 2 Marines of 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade return to base following a search operation along with Afghan National Army personnel in Mian Poshteh in Helmand Province in Afghanistan. US President Barack Obama will announce his new Afghan strategy in an address to the nation Tuesday from the prestigious West Point military academy, the White House said. (AFP/Manpreet Romana)
2017? That’s fine with me. As long as we don’t end up cut and run in the short term.
And the taliban is putting a big red X on the calander accordingly.
Guess you saw this sentence.
I feel sick every time I hear this little man's voice!
LOL! So soon?
We have the watches they have the time.
Guess soros and obuma need 8 more years to control the opium trade. Be less time consuming to grow the stuff in michelle’s Honkeyhouse garden.
MMMM.MMMMMM. MMMMMM. Poppy pie.
This guy must think we're all stupid. 'Course, he's probably right about his own base.
Another photo-op with a military background.
I will not watch, unless, the mahogany Howdy Doody is going to announce his resignation.
Hee hee, you’re right!
One typical snippet:
“I had such high hopes for Obama, he has done nothing but disappoint me. “
So who said there’s nothing we could agree with the DUmpsters about...
Bammy is just a communist...NEOCON!!
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