President Obama addressed the nation yesterday in a speech in which he stated that 10,000 troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2011, and an additional 23,000 by the end of 2012.
Obama seems to be walking the middle path on Afghanistan yet again. The surge troops he sent weren’t enough for the “Afghanistan must be stabilized” crowd, and the “Why are we in Afghanistan at all” crowd didn’t want any surge troops at all. He also said that the surge would be the temporary, trying to appease (or upset) both sides – he’d be sending troops against the wishes of the doves, but not promising to keep them there until the job is done for the hawks.
Now it seems he’s done it again by starting to withdraw troops, but not fast enough for the people that want troops withdrawn. The question is, are these driven by military necessities or political ones? One would think that the President of the United States wouldn’t be making decisions regarding the deployment of our armed services based on political (read: reelection) calculations, but it’s hard (for me, at least) to not consider the possibility that the heat he is feeling from his own party and a large segment of the populace creeps into these decisions.