Wire: Obama Has Yet to Define US Objectives in Afghanistan

Off the Wire:

WASHINGTON, Sept. 8, 2009 -- Newswire services this morning carried a McClatchy newspaper report saying that President Barack Obama has yet to define U.S. objectives in Afghanistan.

The McClatchy article noted the following details:

As the Obama administration and Congress begin a heated debate about how many more American troops to send to Afghanistan , military observers, soldiers on the ground there and some top Pentagon officials are warning that dispatching even tens of thousands more soldiers and Marines might not ensure success.

Some even fear that deploying more U.S. troops, especially in the wake of a U.S. airstrike last week that killed and wounded scores of Afghan civilians, would convince more Afghans that the Americans are occupiers rather than allies and relieve the pressure on the Afghan government to improve its own security forces.

The heart of the problem, soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and some officials in Washington told McClatchy , is that neither Barack Obama's White House nor the Pentagon has clearly defined America's mission in Afghanistan . As a result, some soldiers in the field said, they aren't sure what their objectives are.

Current officials and military officers who're wary of escalation refused to speak on the record because they aren't authorized to talk to the media and because doing so would be hazardous to their careers.

Recently, Obama said "victory" in Afghanistan isn't the United States' goal.

In a factually incorrect comparison, Obama told ABC News, "I'm always worried about using the word 'victory,' because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur."

Emperor Hirohito was not in attendance at the ceremony aboard USS Missouri where Japanese officials signed the surrender documents concluding World War II.

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(Report from newswire sources.)

Source: Obama has yet to define U.S. objectives in Afghanistan

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