Obama officials drop “withdrawal” ruse: US in Afghanistan to stay

Obama’s cynical attempt to package his escalation as a means of shortening the war was only one of the many lies in his address, which sought to portray the escalation of US violence and killing as an altruistic effort to protect the Afghan people and secure their freedom and independence. This included the claim that the US has no interest in occupying Afghanistan or any other country.

Obama’s reference to a supposed time table was a dishonest attempt to provide political cover for the administration’s liberal supporters and disarm the mounting popular opposition to the war. In fact, as the Washington Post noted on Monday, Obama has adopted virtually in full the military plan pushed by the US commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal. The newspaper wrote that McChrystal will “implement a war strategy that is largely unchanged after a three-month-long White House review of the conflict.”

Obama’s top officials have spent the week since the West Point speech repudiating any notion of an early withdrawal and stressing instead the open-ended character of the US occupation of Afghanistan.

Within minutes of the address, administration officials began backpedaling on Obama’s suggestion that the surge would pave the way for a withdrawal of US forces. They were responding to media criticisms of the July 2011 date and attacks on the suggestion of an early withdrawal by Republican and some Democratic congressmen.

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