Jennifer Loven: Obama's War Strategy Recalls That of President Bush
[Jennifer Loven is an American journalist and a White House press correspondent for the Associated Press]
Washington (AP) - It feels like 2007 all over again. Different war, different president, but "surge" is back in vogue.
President Barack Obama's revamped Afghanistan strategy involves rushing -- faster than may prove possible -- 30,000 more troops into the fight by next summer. The abrupt infusion of U.S. military might is aimed at jump-starting a war that has crawled along for more than eight years, yielding few lasting gains.
Obama wants to prevent terrorists from plotting fresh attacks and to set Afghanistan on a path to securing and governing itself.
"I am convinced that our security is at stake in Afghanistan and Pakistan," Obama told West Point cadets and a national TV audience Tuesday night.
"For the safety of our people, America must succeed in Iraq," President George W. Bush said in January 2007 when he ordered his 20,000-troop surge.
From process to goals to specifics, Obama's new war plan is eerily similar to Bush's.
Then in Iraq, as now in Afghanistan, the president took weeks of rumination to settle on a new policy, drawing criticism for dragging out his decision-making.
Then in Iraq, as now in Afghanistan, the war has become longer, costlier and more unpopular than U.S. leaders expected. American-led forces quickly toppled Afghanistan's Taliban government after the 2001 terrorist attacks, but al-Qaida and Taliban extremists now have regrouped in neighboring Pakistan...
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Washington (AP) - It feels like 2007 all over again. Different war, different president, but "surge" is back in vogue.
President Barack Obama's revamped Afghanistan strategy involves rushing -- faster than may prove possible -- 30,000 more troops into the fight by next summer. The abrupt infusion of U.S. military might is aimed at jump-starting a war that has crawled along for more than eight years, yielding few lasting gains.
Obama wants to prevent terrorists from plotting fresh attacks and to set Afghanistan on a path to securing and governing itself.
"I am convinced that our security is at stake in Afghanistan and Pakistan," Obama told West Point cadets and a national TV audience Tuesday night.
"For the safety of our people, America must succeed in Iraq," President George W. Bush said in January 2007 when he ordered his 20,000-troop surge.
From process to goals to specifics, Obama's new war plan is eerily similar to Bush's.
Then in Iraq, as now in Afghanistan, the president took weeks of rumination to settle on a new policy, drawing criticism for dragging out his decision-making.
Then in Iraq, as now in Afghanistan, the war has become longer, costlier and more unpopular than U.S. leaders expected. American-led forces quickly toppled Afghanistan's Taliban government after the 2001 terrorist attacks, but al-Qaida and Taliban extremists now have regrouped in neighboring Pakistan...