Obama will keep this promise!

[boston bean]

One of the few, yes, but he will keep this campaign promise.

Logan: "Why does it have to be the central focus? What is so critical to U.S. interests here?"

Obama: "This is where they can plan attacks. They have sanctuary here. They are gathering huge amounts of money as a consequence of the drug trade in the region. And so that global network is centered in this area. And I think one of the biggest mistakes we've made strategically after 9/11 was to fail to finish the job here, focus our attention here. We got distracted by Iraq.

"And despite what the Bush Administration has argued, I don't think there's any doubt that we were distracted from our efforts not only to hunt down al-Qaeda and the Taliban, but also to rebuild this country so that people have confidence that we were to here to stay over the long haul, that we were going to rebuild roads, provide electricity, improve the quality of life for people. And now we have a chance, I think, to correct some of those areas.

"There's starting to be a broad consensus that it's time for us to withdraw some of our combat troops out of Iraq, deploy them here in Afghanistan. And I think we have to seize that opportunity. Now's the time for us to do it.

"I think what's important for us to do is to begin planning for those brigades now. If we wait until the next administration, it could be a year before we get those additional troops on the ground here in Afghanistan. And I think that would be a mistake. I think the situation is getting urgent enough that we've got to start doing something now.

"The United States has to take a regional approach to the problem. Just as we can't be myopic and focus only on Iraq, we also can't think that we can solve the security problems here in Afghanistan without engaging the Pakistan government."

Read the comments over at crooks and liars, will tell you a lot about how we got to where we are. And I bet his speech will sound an awful lot like this.

http://crooksandliars.com/2008/07/21/senator-obama-on-afghanistan-situation-is-precarious-and-urgent

[lib2DaBone]

1. Afghanistan is the pipeline to the oil and gas rich Caspian Sea Basin..

The U.S. must block China and India from gaining control of this area.

Cia contractor Blackeater has launched a major offensive of kidnappings, murder and drone attacks against the tribes in the area.

Coincidentally, the new US Military bases being built in Afghanistan just happen to be alongside the proposed route of the 1040 mile pipeline.