Obama Will Use West Point as Backdrop to Present Afghan Strategy

By HELENE COOPER

New York Times: November 25, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/us/politics/26afghan.html?_r=1

WASHINGTON — President Obama will formally unveil his Afghanistan strategy on Tuesday night in a prime-time televised address before a group of cadets and soldiers at the United States Military Academy at West Point, White House officials said Wednesday.

The decision to make the case from West Point is calculated to demonstrate that Mr. Obama, even as he is preparing to send as many as 30,000 additional American troops to war, is well aware of the toll that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are taking on the military, administration officials said.

While Mr. Obama will discuss the troop increase during his address, which is scheduled for 8 p.m., he will also talk about bringing troops home, as he tries to walk a fine line between demonstrating resolve and reassuring Americans that the commitment to Afghanistan is not open-ended.

“Throughout this process, the president has repeatedly pushed and prodded not simply for how are we going to get a certain number of troops in, but what has to be implemented ultimately to get them out,” Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, told reporters. “We are in year nine of our efforts in Afghanistan. We’re not going to be there another eight or nine years.”

After the speech, administration officials will fan out to testify on Capitol Hill. The House Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing next Thursday featuring Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A committee aide said the panel might also hear from Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, the following day or on Dec. 8.

In speaking at West Point, the oldest and arguably the most storied of the country’s service academies, Mr. Obama will be following a long tradition of presidents who sought to envelop significant policy initiatives with a cloak of military history and ritual.

President George W. Bush discussed his doctrine of preventive attack during a West Point speech in 2002. He then defended the doctrine six years later, again at West Point, after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, a year ago, when he issued a pointed message that “we will do what is necessary to protect American troops and the American people.”

Mr. Obama, too, will most likely assure the American people next Tuesday that he will take whatever steps are necessary to pursue terrorists and to prevent Al Qaeda from using Afghanistan as a launching pad for attacks on the United States. He will also try to signal resolve to the international community, and specifically Afghanistan and Pakistan, that the United States remains committed to the region.

Yet at the same time, he will try to reassure skeptics at home, particularly among members of his own party, that he will not become mired in an unwinnable war in Afghanistan. Mr. Gibbs said Mr. Obama would meet with members of Congress to brief them on his strategy before the West Point speech.

There had been speculation that Mr. Obama would reveal his latest strategy for Afghanistan in a speech from the Oval Office — a setting that brings with it the prestige and history of the American presidency. But such addresses can also come across as stark, with the president talking straight into a camera, lacking an audience to play off.

Mr. Obama, known for his soaring oratory, often does well when he is making a crucial speech in front of an audience, as with his speech on race in Philadelphia during the presidential primaries last year.

Still, he will have a tough job, especially among his allies. On Wednesday, the Center for American Progress, a liberal research organization that is usually supportive of the Obama White House, issued a statement suggesting five demands that Congress should make of the administration before providing any additional financing for the war in Afghanistan.

The list was filled with tall orders, like ensuring that the United States’ allies help out, pressing Pakistan to battle extremists and requiring the Afghan government to curb corruption.

Peter Baker contributed reporting.

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Act Now! Call the White House to Say No Escalation in Afghanistan!

Reports now say that President Obama will announce his plan for Afghanistan on Tuesday, Dec. 1 and it is likely that an escalation of troops will be a part of that plan.

But it is not too late to call the White House TODAY to say NO Escalation! Call 202-456-1111. This is the moment when we can have an impact.

On Dec 1st and 2nd (if Obama makes the announcement on Tuesday), UFPJ is joining with many other groups around the country to call for people to be out on the streets, at federal buildings or other busy locations with vigils, protests, and marches of the dead to express our dismay and outrage over continuing this war that is having devastating affects on the Afghan people, the troops and for people here at home suffering from the billions of dollars that are not being spent on healthcare, education, housing, jobs and other human needs.

Click here to post your event and here to find an event in your town or city.