Does anyone else think that there's something wrong with a President who wants to bail out newspapers,
The president said he is "happy to look at" bills before Congress that
would give struggling news organizations tax breaks if they were to
restructure as nonprofit businesses.
"I haven't seen detailed proposals yet, but I'll be happy to look at them," Obama told the editors of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Toledo Blade in an interview....
"I am concerned that if the direction of
the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious
fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what
you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the
void but not a lot of mutual understanding," he said.
newspapers that, interestingly enough, grovel regularly at his feet, while now being unwilling to bail out the Afghan people
From his headquarters in Kabul, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal sees one
clear path to achieve President Obama's core goal of preventing
al-Qaeda from reestablishing havens in Afghanistan: "Success," he
writes in his assessment, "demands a comprehensive counterinsurgency
campaign."
Inside the White House, the way forward in Afghanistan is no longer so clear.
Although Obama endorsed a strategy document in March that called for
"executing and resourcing an integrated civilian-military
counterinsurgency strategy," there have been significant changes in
Afghanistan and Washington since then. A disputed presidential election, an erosion in support for the war
effort among Democrats in Congress and the American public, and a sharp
increase in U.S. casualties have prompted the president and his top
advisers to reexamine their assumptions about the U.S. role in
defeating the Taliban insurgency.
Instead of debating whether to give McChrystal, the top U.S.
commander in Afghanistan, more troops, the discussion in the White
House is now focused on whether, after eight years of war, the United
States should vastly expand counterinsurgency efforts along the lines
he has proposed -- which involve an intensive program to improve
security and governance in key population centers -- or whether it
should begin shifting its approach away from such initiatives and
simply target leaders of terrorist groups who try to return to
Afghanistan.
from oppressive and threatening rule by the Taliban and the re-establishment of Al Qaeda? Recall, this is the man who during the campaign was focused like a laser on the "real" war, in Afghanistan. There certainly was plenty of tough talk on this from Mr. Obama during the debates. (Note: there was no question on terrorism or Afghanistan from Bob Schieffer in the third debate)
First debate:
OBAMA: Yes, I think we need more troops. I've been saying that for over a year now.
And I think that we have to do it as quickly as possible, because it's
been acknowledged by the commanders on the ground the situation is
getting worse, not better.
We had the highest fatalities among
U.S. troops this past year than at any time since 2002. And we are
seeing a major offensive taking place -- al Qaeda and Taliban crossing
the border and attacking our troops in a brazen fashion. They are
feeling emboldened.
And we cannot separate Afghanistan from
Iraq, because what our commanders have said is we don't have the troops
right now to deal with Afghanistan.
So I would send two to three
additional brigades to Afghanistan. Now, keep in mind that we have four
times the number of troops in Iraq, where nobody had anything to do
with 9/11 before we went in, where, in fact, there was no al Qaeda
before we went in, but we have four times more troops there than we do
in Afghanistan.
And that is a strategic mistake, because every
intelligence agency will acknowledge that al Qaeda is the greatest
threat against the United States and that Secretary of Defense Gates
acknowledged the central front -- that the place where we have to deal
with these folks is going to be in Afghanistan and in Pakistan.
So here's what we have to do comprehensively, though. It's not just more troops.
We have to press the Afghan government to make certain that they are
actually working for their people. And I've said this to President
Karzai.
No. 2, we've got to deal with a growing poppy trade that has exploded over the last several years.
No. 3, we've got to deal with Pakistan, because al Qaeda and the
Taliban have safe havens in Pakistan, across the border in the
northwest regions, and although, you know, under George Bush, with the
support of Senator McCain, we've been giving them $10 billion over the
last seven years, they have not done what needs to be done to get rid
of those safe havens.
And until we do, Americans here at home are not going to be safe.
Second debate:
Obama: Katie, it's a terrific question and we have a
difficult situation in Pakistan. I believe that part of the reason we
have a difficult situation is because we made a bad judgment going into
Iraq in the first place when we hadn't finished the job of hunting down
bin Laden and crushing al Qaeda.
So what happened was we got
distracted, we diverted resources, and ultimately bin Laden escaped,
set up base camps in the mountains of Pakistan in the northwest
provinces there.
They are now raiding our troops in Afghanistan,
destabilizing the situation. They're stronger now than at any time
since 2001. And that's why I think it's so important for us to reverse
course, because that's the central front on terrorism.
They are
plotting to kill Americans right now. As Secretary Gates, the defense
secretary, said, the war against terrorism began in that region and
that's where it will end. So part of the reason I think it's so
important for us to end the war in Iraq is to be able to get more
troops into Afghanistan, put more pressure on the Afghan government to
do what it needs to do, eliminate some of the drug trafficking that's
funding terrorism.
But I do believe that we have to change our
policies with Pakistan. We can't coddle, as we did, a dictator, give
him billions of dollars and then he's making peace treaties with the
Taliban and militants.
What I've said is we're going to
encourage democracy in Pakistan, expand our nonmilitary aid to Pakistan
so that they have more of a stake in working with us, but insisting
that they go after these militants.
And if we have Osama bin
Laden in our sights and the Pakistani government is unable or unwilling
to take them out, then I think that we have to act and we will take
them out. We will kill bin Laden; we will crush Al Qaeda. That has to
be our biggest national security priority.
I see. An "erosion in support" among the American people is enough to change policy on defending the country, but not enough to change policy on health care reform?
Fifty-six percent (56%) of voters nationwide now oppose the health care reform proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. That’s the highest level of opposition yet measured and includes 44% who are Strongly Opposed.
Do the American people really know more about foreign policy and national security than about their own health care system and domestic economic issues?
Mr. Obama was given a tremendous gift by former President Bush. Iraq was, although not fully secure, stabilized after the successful "surge" and counterinsurgency strategy. All he needed to do there was stay the course of supporting Iraqi democracy and Iraqi security forces. Mr. Obama has Afghanistan as his responsibility. And it seems he's determined to punt it away after calling it "our biggest national security priority" as "the central front on terrorism."