[Peace-discuss] Foreign press slightly more honest

[Jenifer Cartwright]

Thanks, John Fettig, for setting the record straight re "deception" -- that is indeed what the campaign promise was... and some of us were hoping this was one campaign promise that Obama wouldn't keep -- it looked like a possibility for a while (probably wishful thinking, in hindsight...)
It also really bothers me that Obama said (last nite's speech) that the Taliban had refused to turn over Osama bin Laden... Well, unless negotiations were going on behind the scenes (not likely, as the US was out for blood), Bush spoke a day or two after 9/11 -- he said that the US had demanded bin Laden, that the Taliban had asked what the conditions would be, but (Bush's words) it was too late for negotiations...
 --Jenifer

--- On Wed, 12/2/09, John Fettig <john.fettig at gmail.com> wrote:


From: John Fettig <john.fettig at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Foreign press slightly more honest
To: "C.G.Estabrook" <galliher at illinois.edu>
Cc: "peace-discuss" <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>, "E. Wayne Johnson" <ewj at pigs.ag>
Date: Wednesday, December 2, 2009, 2:47 PM


Except there was no deception involved;  this is precisely what Obama promised during his campaign.  See for example http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/07/06/obama_mccain_split_over_afghan_strategy/





If elected, Obama says, he would immediately withdraw thousands of ground troops from Iraq and send them to Afghanistan to help undermanned US forces defeat the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
"It's time to refocus our attention on the war we have to win in Afghanistan," Obama said in a speech last week. "It is time to go after the Al Qaeda leadership where it actually exists."
The Illinois senator, whose opposition to the Iraq war is a campaign centerpiece, has concluded that the US presence there has fanned Islamic terrorism and diverted scarce military resources from taking on new terrorist camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where Al Qaeda operatives trained for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Obama believes that the United States has relied too heavily on forces from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a Europe-based military alliance which has little experience in guerrilla warfare.
"Afghanistan should have been our fight," said retired Air Force General Merrill "Tony" McPeak, national cochairman of Obama's campaign. McPeak blamed the Iraq war, where the United States has about 140,000 troops, for diverting the Pentagon's focus on Afghanistan, where only 32,000 American troops are stationed.





On Dec 2, 2009, at 1:50 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:


"Ah, ha!" he says. "Fooled you! I had my fingers crossed: I meant Iraq, not AfPak! Now I get to kill as many people as I want there!"


E. Wayne Johnson wrote:

The NYT writers surely must have a bad taste in their mouths.

*

Was anyone supposed to believe this--?

/"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank. " - Barack Obama Campaign Promise - October 27, 2007/

...
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