Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The State of the Union

President Obama’s State of the Union address last night promised a prosperous future as we rebuild America’s reputation in the world among people of all regions, races and creeds. The President assured that our country will progress if we work to strengthen the economy, invest in sustainable energy, educate the leaders of tomorrow, and ultimately put faith back in the renewed government. Obama challenged us to make the most of the current state of America and, instead of being discouraged, strive to surpass the rest of the world.

In relation to the “War on Terror”, the President looked to the state of Iraq as a positive model for continued efforts in Afghanistan. He certified that “American combat patrols have ended, violence has come down, and a new government has been formed” in Iraq and that it is now possible to sustain a cooperative relationship with the people as we finish bringing the troupes home.

While his main concern seemed to be continued insurgency by Al Qaeda, Obama demonstrated confidence in the government intelligence’s ability to keep the community safe as well as confidence in the strength and level-headedness of the community. He expressed that our ultimate goal in Afghanistan is to “prevent the Taliban from reestablishing a stranglehold over the Afghan people [and to] deny al Qaeda the safe-haven that served as a launching pad for 9/11”. He assures us that we are making progress with the Taliban, helping to build a security force, and working with the government to ensure the safety of Afghani civilians.

However, the President believes that as we have sufficiently demobilized many Taliban troupes and secured numerous refuges that were harboring insurgents. Thus, the President announced that, beginning this July, we will be able to begin to pull troupes out of Afghanistan.

The objectives of the War in Afghanistan are surely nowhere near completion and there is sure to be more fighting. The mission in Afghanistan will surely fail without the cooperation of the government in place there and President Obama called on the help of “nearly fifty countries to begin a transition to an Afghan lead.”

The President ended his section on Afghanistan with the message he hopes to send to terrorists around the world: “We will not relent, we will not waver, and we will defeat you.”

You can read a full transcript of President Obama’s State of the Union here:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2011/01/25/133224909/obamas-state-of-the-union-speech

Or watch it after the jump:

4 comments:

  1. Hey Greg,

    I thought that your blog post this week was very interesting, and the things you wrote about Afghanistan and potentially pulling out troops seemed very hopeful. However, in lieu of the recent riots in Egypt (that seem to be spreading throughout the Arab world), do you really think that the situation in Afghanistan will start to improve? Do you instead think that Afghanistan will soon be faced with a much worse situation?

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  2. Yes, so Mr. Obama spoke a program that would begin to pull American armed forces out of Afghanistan in July. Apart from 100% objective reporting, what is your opinion? Do you think that this country's leadership will leave the forces in Afghanistan throughout the summer, or will they be pulled?

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  3. My opinion is that this date for the drawback to being in July is entirely plausible. However the rate at which troops are withdrawn and the initial amount can remain up in the air right up until July. As of right now the focus of the US troops needs to shift from fighting the Taliban to training as many ANA troops as possible. The whole point of the date is to initiate the change in responsibility from the US to the Afghanistan Army and government. This means that US troops may still be in Afghanistan for several years after the initiation of the drawback, but over that period more and more responsibility is going to be put on the shoulders of the Afghanistan government. The whole point is to begin to show the world that what we have done in Afghanistan has been for the betterment of the country and that they are beginning to handle the conflicts of the country on its own. For a more in depth response please refer to my recent blog post titled "US troops coming home"? under the February tab. Would also love to hear from you again and would love to continue the discussion.

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  4. Greg, one of the main things that jumps out at me here is what you say about the the objectives of the mission being far from complete. I would like to know what those objectives are? If, as Biddle et al say in their July/August "Foreign Affairs" article, the two main objectives are preventing future attacks on the US and maintaining a quasi-stable region (i.e. no regional spilling over of Taliban control into Pakistan)...might we be closer to fulfilling them than you indicate?

    If turning Afghanistan into a paragon of democracy is the objective, there is much work to be done indeed...but perhaps that isn't realistic. To Fatima's point/question, is it possible that we will see better governance from Karzai given the pressure that Mubarak is facing in Egypt? See the Jean Mackenzie's writing over at the Global Post (which I posted to your Diigo group) about how the Afghan press is apparently hesitant to report on the Egyptian crisis.

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