Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Sartre Meets Afghanistan: Obama’s ‘No Exit’ Strategy


by Arianna Huffington, December 23, 2009

"To take some of the sting out of his decision to send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, President Obama laid out an exit strategy by setting a date – July 2011 – on which troops will begin withdrawing. The president, through Robert Gibbs, described the date as "locked in," "etched in stone," and having "no flexibility. Troops will start coming home in July 2011. Period."
Sounds pretty definite. But just four days later, members of Obama’s cabinet were directly contradicting their boss.......

Does that sound familiar? Not only is Obama continuing Bush’s war, he’s continuing his method of Magical Thinking: the idea that simply saying something is true is the same as its being true. We’re getting more eloquent words this time, to be sure, but the same tragic result: endless wars of choice.

Gates and Clinton now claim that July 2011 isn’t really an actual exit date. Sadly, I believe them. Obama isn’t distancing himself from "the Left" with his decision to escalate this deepening disaster. He’s distancing himself from the national interests of the country."

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