Is The U.S. Now Back Peddling On An Afghan Withdrawal Date?

TROOP LEVELS - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton testify before the House Foreign Relations Committee at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C., Dec. 2, 2009. The focus of the testimony was President Barack Obama's decision to send an additional 30,000 troops to the war in Afghanistan. DoD photo by U.S. Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley

Defense Chief Gates Offers Reassurance on Afghan War Drawdown -- Bloomberg

Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. will thin its troops in Afghanistan gradually and based on conditions in local areas, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told lawmakers today as he sought to deflect Republican criticism of a target drawdown date.

The start of any withdrawal will be based on a review to be conducted in December 2010, and probably will occur district by district or province by province, as Afghan forces are ready to take over, Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington today.

Read more ....

My Comment: Sec. of Def. Gates is right about how a draw down should be implemented in Afghanistan. But this is not what President Obama said last night ....

And as Commander-in-Chief, I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan. After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home.

.... Taken together, these additional American and international troops will allow us to accelerate handing over responsibility to Afghan forces, and allow us to begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011

If the new interpretation (from Sec. Def Gates) is the following .... troops will come home when the objectives have been attained .... this makes sense to me.

But if it is what the President said last night .... After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home .... and this is a drawdown regardless of the security situation .... hmmmm ..... this does not make sense to me.

Many of President Obama's critics are now pounding on his declaration of a withdrawal date, but I believe that what President Obama meant to say is that U.S. troops will start to go home only when the security conditions in Afghanistan warrant it. With much at stake, I doubt that he wants to position himself to be known as a President who fled a losing war ..... the political consequences from such a defeat will impact the Democrat Party for generations, and will ruin his own agenda and legacy.