President's Afghan drawdown plan called risky, 'unrealistic'

[OnePimpTiger]

President's Afghan drawdown plan called risky, 'unrealistic'

President Obama's timetable for winding down the war in Afghanistan may be too short for the United States to achieve its war aims but too long to hold American public support, observers said Tuesday.

Obama announced the deployment of another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan in a Tuesday night speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, senior administration officials said. The announcement is coupled with a plan to begin withdrawing the American contingent in July 2011, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Andrew Bacevich, a Boston University professor and former Army officer, said the balancing act could leave Obama facing "really unpalatable" choices in 2011 and beyond.

"If you're in my camp, you're hard-pressed to see how everything is going to go smoothly in Afghanistan," said Bacevich, who has called the Afghan war unnecessary and impossible to win.

Obama could be forced to choose between sticking to his plans and leaving the American mission unfinished or extending the U.S. role in an unpopular war.

"It's hard to conceive that public support will have risen," he said. "On the other hand, a president facing re-election who pulls the plug on a failing war is going to find himself charged with being an ineffective commander-in-chief."

[11chaos]

More than unrealistic it should be called something else entirely that i am not allowed to say because of the whole I am in the military thing.

[jaybird_1981]

Putting a timetable on the troop increase was the height of stupidity.

[duane1969]

I watched about 5 minutes of the speech but to be honest the most interesting/entertaining thing that I saw about the speech was the cadets asleep in the crowd.

As for Obama's plan, my .02 is that a man who never served in the military and who has openly decried military action in the Middle East is the last person that should be laying out a plan of military action for Afghanistan.

[dfr52]

Bush didn't have answer and now Obama's following in his foot steps. Why can't we find leadership that can properly address this situation.