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India-Pakistan
Obama gathers top aides on Afghanistan, Pakistan
2011-04-26
[Dawn] US President Barack B.O. Obama Monday gathered top national security and intelligence staff for his regular review of Afghan and Pakistain strategy, amid suggestions of fresh tensions with Islamabad.

The talks, in the secure Situation Room of the White House, went ahead amid a rumbling US disagreement with Islamabad on the fight against faceless myrmidons in the volatile Afghan-Pakistain border region.

At Obama's side in the talks were Defense Secretary Robert Gates, UN ambassador Susan Rice, National Security Advisor Tom Donilon and James Clapper, his director of national intelligence.
But not his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
Vice President Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden
The former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body...
, top Afghan war General David Petraeus and the US ambassadors to Pakistain and Afghanistan joined the session via secure video-link, the White House said.
No link for Secretary Clinton, either. Perhaps she begged off for a much-needed day with the family.
On Saturday, Pakistain's army chief General Ashfaq Kayani
... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI...
 said that the "backbone" of faceless myrmidons in Pakistain had been broken, despite US criticisms of his country's strategy against Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked rebels.

The White House criticized Pakistain's efforts to defeat the Taliban in its border regions, in a report immediately rejected by Islamabad earlier in April.

Obama is also beginning to reach the point when he must consider recommendations by the military for the promised partial withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan which he has demanded from July this year.

However,
The over-used However...
 his press front man Jay Carney said that Monday's session was not a "decisional" meeting, but was rather a regular review of US policy.

There are signs that any drawdown of troops from the decade-long fight against the Taliban will be mainly symbolic as Washington and its allies increasingly focus on the security "transition" from foreign to Afghan control.

The administration has gradually de-emphasized the timeframe, instead saying that most US forces would leave in 2014, the date set by last year's NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants...
 summit for putting Afghans in charge of their own country's security.
Posted by:Fred

#8  We must be seriously winning, then

Judging from the piles of dead Talibunnies and the outraged howling from what passes for a government in Pakistain, things are going our way.
Posted by: SteveS   2011-04-26 17:42  

#7  "I think that Obama is looking to retreat from Afghanistan"

We must be seriously winning, then.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2011-04-26 14:50  

#6  Good point Bill.

I would like to point out that Obama, and his supporters are hell-bent on snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and make Iraq into another Vietnam war.

And then blame it all on Bush.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2011-04-26 14:44  

#5  I think that Obama is looking to retreat from Afghanistan as a bone to throw to his true believers. The hard left is angry at Obama right now and he has to keep his core support together for next years election.

Military recommendations and the reality on the battlefield will have nothing to do with the decision to leave. This as was posted,a "circus", to give the impression the decision is being made in real time instead of two and a half years ago when he took office.

Of course, it will be complete fiasco, complete with mass executions of US supporters, an escalation of terrorist activities world wide and a new boldness by the ISI to continue their neferious ways.

The day we announce we are leaving Iraq starts the countdown to the next major terrorist attack on the US.
Posted by: Bill Clinton   2011-04-26 13:59  

#4  Obama is also beginning to reach the point when he must consider recommendations by the military for the promised partial withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan which he has demanded from July this year.

Petreaus is in Pakistan urging thier military to increase pressure on the border regions in order to further impede the flow of fighters and weapons. At the same time, contractors and trusted atmospherics feelers have teamed, and are circulating the battlespace as we speak, interviewing small unit leaders, taking note of regional progress, then reporting back to Petraeus and his top brass? The blueprint for unit withdrawls is being formulated. Obama MUST achieve some kind of success or validity relative to his stated withdrawl strategy. He will obviously not gain any mileage at the polls with his economic policies.

Posted by: Besoeker   2011-04-26 13:15  

#3  Mikey, they are at county fairs the circus would be a move up
Posted by: Beavis   2011-04-26 13:01  

#2  isn't a Carney a person that runs a circus?
what a great name for a Presidential spokesman
Posted by: Mikey Hunt   2011-04-26 12:52  

#1  Why doesn't NATO work on putting Europeans in charge of European security?
Posted by: Mike Ramsey   2011-04-26 06:32  

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