June 24, 2011

Obama's Afghanistan Speech: Way Too Little and Way Too Late

Phyllis Bennis writes: "President Obama’s speech last night announcing his withdrawal plans for Afghanistan was significant in one way — that it was in fact a discussion of withdrawal, not further escalation. And that reflects awareness in the White House, however grudging and belittled, that public opinion has shifted dramatically on this war."

Having said that, the substance of President Obama’s decision is completely insufficient – it’s way too little and way too late. The speech itself probably didn’t please anyone, though the military brass was probably happier than most. They had demanded a sloooowwwwww withdrawal, and that’s certainly what they got — with only about 10,000 troops (of a whopping 200,000 U.S. military and security forces currently deployed in Afghanistan) moving out by the end of this year. Then another 23,000 next year — which will still leave about 68,000 troops occupying Afghanistan for years to come, twice the number there when President Obama took office. That’s besides the 100,000 Pentagon-paid contractors and 50,000 or so NATO troops still there fighting, killing and dying alongside the U.S. troops.

There’s an ancient Afghan proverb my friend and co-author David Wildman sent me. (We wrote Ending the U.S. War in Afghanistan: A Primer together). It says, “Before truth arrives, lies will have destroyed villages.”  The ancient Afghans were right.

I did a lot of media on this in the run-up to the speech in the last couple of days — including the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on Tuesday night, and NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show the next morning. And my overall analysis, “Obama Offers Token Troop Withdrawals” was published on Alternet just after Obama finished speaking. The text of it is below.

As usual, it's a very crazy time. I haven’t written much for the last several weeks, mostly because of travel. I was just beginning some writing following my May trip to Egypt and Jordan, came home just in time to respond to the killing of Osama Bin Laden and all that that assassination did and didn’t mean. Some of my writing on Tahrir Square and the Arab Spring has been delayed.

Then I was gone again, this time to Turkey, just in time to see the extraordinary political developments around their elections — some real lessons for us. In many ways, we can really say about Turkey, “THIS is what democracy looks like” — at least the election side of democracy. Turkey achieved an astonishing 88 percent voter turn-out rate, really extraordinary. I kept imagining how excited we were in this country when we managed 56 percent in 2008 — I think the highest ever. So as usual we have a lot to learn from the rest of the world. I’ll be working on a piece on Turkey in the next little while.

And now, the international Freedom Flotilla, including the U.S. boat “The Audacity of Hope,” will be heading for Gaza in the next few days. Despite some hopeful signs on the partially opening Egyptian border, Gaza remains besieged, its 1.8 million people imprisoned by the Israeli occupation. We’ll all be watching to support the Flotilla’s challenge to Israel’s illegal blockade, and to make sure there is no repeat of last year’s deadly attack on non-violent activists on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara by Israeli commandos in international waters. Keep up with developments at the website of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.

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And hope you’re all having a very good summer.

Phyllis

(June 23, 2011)

In Afghanistan Speech, Obama Offers Token Troop Withdrawals While Maintaining the "War on Terror” Mindset

By Phyllis Bennis, AlterNet

President Obama’s speech tonight violated one of his most important campaign promises: to “end the mind-set that leads to war.”

Phyllis Bennis is a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. She is the author of "Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the UN Defy U.S. Power" (Interlink Publishing, October 2005).