[Peace-discuss] Obama Narrows Afghan Goals - And Leaves Them Wide

[Robert Naiman]

A progressive Congressional staffer once told me: "The first rule of
Congress is - if you have the opportunity to vote both ways on the
same issue, do it." In "narrowing" the goals for the U.S. occupation
of Afghanistan, President Obama appears to have obeyed the first rule
of Congress. In his speech on Afghanistan, Obama had it both ways.

He asserted that "we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt,
dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to
prevent their return to either country in the future" and that "we are
not in Afghanistan to control that country or to dictate its future."
At the same time he struck out against an assumed threat of a "return
to Taliban rule," and insisted that al Qaeda terrorists "would
accompany the core Taliban leadership," which arguably implies that
the set of U.S. goals may not have narrowed very much, and that the
U.S. is indeed still trying to control Afghanistan and dictate its
future.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/obama-narrows-afghan-goal_b_180077.html

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/3/27/13588/3138

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Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org