[Peace-discuss] Is Team Obama Really Rethinking Afghanistan?

[Robert Naiman]

Some speculation in the press has suggested that the current White
House deliberations on General McChrystal's request for 40,000 more
troops in Afghanistan might be largely a political tactic. But two
recent articles in the Wall Street Journal suggest that Obama and his
advisers are indeed rethinking key assumptions which have underpinned
U.S. policy: in particular, the assumption that al Qaeda would have a
"safe haven" in Afghanistan if the Taliban regain control of parts of
the country. Two other assumptions that have driven U.S. policy also
deserve White House review: the assumption that an al Qaeda safe haven
in Afghanistan would significantly increase the terrorist threat to
the United States, and the assumption that a Taliban military victory
would necessarily follow a U.S. military withdrawal.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/is-team-obama-really-reth_b_311166.html

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/10/6/125324/849

http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/360

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

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