President Obama’s Speech Fails To Justify Continuing War In Afghanistan

By Yashwanth Manjunath

Yesterday Barack Obama gave arguably the worst policy speech of his entire presidency thus far. Under the guise of charting a new direction in Afghanistan, all President Obama did was justify the status quo. The announced troop withdrawal of 10,000 troops by the end of the year and 30,000 by December of 2012 has been the plan for months, would only bring back the surge of troops Obama announced back in 2009 at West Point, and would leave nearly twice as many troops in Afghanistan by the end of his first term as there were when he entered office. Full troop withdrawal would not be completed until 2014, when Obama may or may not even be in office anymore, at which point all bets are off.

Obama’s speech comes at a time when public opinion has reached an all-time high in favor of ending the war completely, with 56% of Americans favoring an immediate withdrawal. Yet President Obama failed to justify going against public opinion by providing specific details about why this war still needs to continue.

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