Do Gates And Obama Want To Win In Afghanistan?

Gates is using the "W" word. Heck, that's only one letter away from the "V". So,do Obama and Gates want to win in Afghanistan?I'm unconvinced.

I wonder if Obama isn't staying away from talking about victory, or winning to avoid a latter embarrassing video clip that could come back to haunt him if he decides to pull out.

In Afghanistan, “We’re in this thing to win.”  It’s great news, if in fact it reflects the position of the Obama administration. Washington Post:

“We are not going to repeat the experience of 1989,” Gates said. As U.S. troops begin to depart in favor of trained Afghan forces, developmental and economic aid will continue to flow, he stressed. “We intend to be their partner for a long time to come,” Gates said.

Comments

[Drider]

It is no longer a question of "if" Obama wants to win it and totally irrelevant either way on what Gate's take is.

We are leaving, starting in July of 2011, Obama reiterated that this is a hard date of withdraw not long after making his intentions public.

I fully expect the MSN to jump on board the Obama bus and flood us with many stories of how Afghanistan has turned around in the coming months and tout that as victory, afterall, what better way to get peace than to surrender via a drawn down date.

The enemy on the otherhand is now drying their eyes from a solid week of belly laughs and will now simply stash the weapons, recruit more people now that the people see that there is only one horse in this race and thats the Taliban.

So, may all those who brought this loss about, their families and friends..............work in high rise buildings for when the next round takes place.

[John Bibb]

***
We won the American Revolution and our liberty and better life in 7 years against a much stronger enemy than the Taliban / Al Queda. If President Kharzai and those in Afghanistan can't do the same in the 8 years American Military and Taxpayers have backed him up then we should leave them to their fate.
***
You can lead a horse (or people) to the river, but you can not force them to drink (or fight for their liberty)!
***
Leave in 2 years--and use B52's, Cruise Missiles, Predator Drone attacks, etc. as needed to hit terrorists and their camps in the future. Don't throw away our military personnel's lives piecemeal--like we did in Vietnam. Win it or leave. And use high tech to strike them terrorists there if necessary.
***
Rocketman
***

[seekeronos]

Cut out the middle man and the expense, and just pull everyone and everything back home... and start building up our arsenal of nukes and "Rods from God" (space-based kinetic impact weapons).

Stop spending so much money fighting everyone else's wars, and protect our own borders.

[Elmo]

Zzzzzz Zzzzzz Zzzzzz ....

[Neo]

We are not going to repeat the experience of 1989”

If you go over to Wikipedia, you will be left wondering just what Gates is talking about. You will find that the Soviets left in 1989, but nothing to indicate why any American should feel any guilt over "the experience of 1989”

There isn't even anything like the epilogue of "Charlie Wilson's War" (i.e the Democrats in the House cutoff funding for the peace time schools, hospitals, etc) in Charles Wilson's entry.

[richard mcenroe]

"We're in this to win..." the 2012 election...

[mark l.]

it is intellectually impossible for obama(and liberals) to define any outcome as being close to a "win".
the parameters by which they held judgement of iraq, won't come close to being achieved.

in some ways, the libs aren't crazy...
mention afghanistan and they sulk off. for eight years they launched a pr war against bush, based on spending/debt and a "costly, unwinnable war". the messiah has exceeded bush's 'mistakes' of eight years, in less than one year in office.

the one charge that can be leveled against obama, that is undeinable, is that he has chosen a course of nation building. he simply selected one of the poorest of countries in the world, which will never have a revenue stream as was present in Iraq.

within 6 months of the 'withdrawal date', before/after, gates resigns.