some say the President was going to go out of Afghanistan, others say he was going to finish the job

[Deja Q]

Others say to the claim he was going to leave, "Obama never said that!"

Yet there are so few links to any claims, counter-claims, non-claims, baggage claims, and so on...

Can people provide actual links to the claims fueling DU's latest love-fest? In one amalgamated thread so people can read them all and make up their own minds?


:) Thx. :)

[tekisui]

1. Obama said he would add at least 10,000 more troops to Afghanistan 7/14/08

From July 14th, 2008:

SAN DIEGO — Senator Barack Obama is proposing that the United States deploy about 10,000 more troops to battle resurgent forces in Afghanistan, a plan intended to shift the American military focus from the Iraq war to the marked rise in violence from the Taliban.

“As president, I would pursue a new strategy, and begin by providing at least two additional combat brigades to support our effort in Afghanistan,” Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, wrote in an Op-Ed article published on Monday in The New York Times. “We need more troops, more helicopters, better intelligence-gathering and more nonmilitary assistance to accomplish the mission there.”

Mr. Obama, who is among those who maintain that Afghanistan has been neglected because of the administration’s Iraq policy, has not previously offered such a specific plan for how to strengthen troop levels in Afghanistan. His proposal comes as he prepares to visit American commanders to assess progress in Iraq and needs in Afghanistan.

He said a new round of violence on Sunday, in which nine American soldiers died in fierce fighting with the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan, underscored the military challenges ahead for the United States. He said in a news conference here, “It’s very hard for us to bolster our forces in Afghanistan when we have such a heavy presence in Iraq.”

As the Bush administration considers withdrawing additional combat troops from Iraq in September, the military needs in Afghanistan are coming into sharper focus. Mr. Obama and other Democrats have said the balance of troops in the two war zones should be adjusted. At the same time, a downturn in Iraqi violence has complicated their arguments that a surge of American troops was flawed.

“I continue to believe that we’re under-resourced in Afghanistan,” Mr. Obama said on Sunday, speaking to reporters after addressing a Latino group here. “That is the real center for terrorist activity that we have to deal with and deal with aggressively.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/14/us/politics/14campaign.html

[tekisui]

2. Printed elsewhere as 7,000.

Obama would send 2 more brigades to Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrat Barack Obama said Monday that as president he would send at least two more combat brigades to Afghanistan, where U.S. soldiers face rising violence and endured their deadliest attack in three years on Sunday.

The proposed force increase -- about 7,000 troops -- is part of Obama's plan to pull combat troops out of Iraq and focus on the growing threat from a resurgent al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

"As president, I would pursue a new strategy, and begin by providing at least two additional combat brigades to support our effort in Afghanistan," Obama said in an op-ed published Monday in The New York Times, a day before he plans a speech here on his vision for Iraq and Afghanistan.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/articles/2008/07/14/today_on_the_presidential_campaign_trail/

[tekisui]

3. On equipment in Afghanistan:

Obama plans to shift troops from Iraq to Afghanistan, the second front in the war on terror. "The Afghan people must know that our commitment to their future is enduring," he said last Tuesday. For Obama, this means beefing up the current force of 32,000 US troops in Afghanistan by at least two brigades, or 10,000 soldiers. But, if Obama has his way, America will not be going it alone. "We need more troops, more helicopters, more satellites, more Predator drones in the Afghan border region," he said in his speech in Washington. We need, he made it clear, more NATO.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,567148-2,00.html

[Clio the Leo]

4. You just gave me an excuse to do something I've been hesitating about doing....

.... so thank you.

(lol, I think, I may be mad at you later)

[tekisui]

5. Stories where Obama mentioned Afghanistan stary in July 2007

In New Hampshire he said:

WASHINGTON — Democrat Barack Obama said it, the Republican Party pointed out in a screaming headline Tuesday that highlighted the presidential candidate's comments on Afghanistan and the killing of civilians.

Behind the scenes, Obama's rival campaigns buzzed about his statement uttered Monday during a campaign stop in New Hampshire when he was asked about his plan to move troops into Afghanistan.

"We've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there," Obama said.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/topstories/2007-08-14-364821334_x.htm

[Clio the Leo]

6. Here's something....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x26304