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Afghan war decision:
Toughest of Presidency: Obama
US: US President Barack Obama said Sunday that his decision to pour
30,000 more US troops into the war in Afghanistan was the most difficult
of his presidency so far.
Acknowledging his move to escalate the conflict flew in the face of a
war-weary public, Obama said it would be clear within a year whether the
surge was working but left the door open to adjusting his approach if
necessary. The newly crowned Nobel laureate told CBS that attending
ceremonies for fallen soldiers returning home in flag-draped coffins and
visiting scarred veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had deeply
marked him.
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Afghan troops |
| * Most
difficult of his Presidency so far
* Solemn obligation on the part
of commander |
“There is nothing more profound. And it is a solemn obligation on the
part of me as commander in chief to get those decisions right,” he said.
Just days before he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and after months
of deliberations, Obama unveiled his new Afghan strategy in a speech to
cadets at the prestigious West Point military academy. “That was
actually probably the most emotional speech that I’ve made, in terms of
how I felt about it. Because I was looking out over a group of cadets,
some of whom were going to be deployed in Afghanistan.
And potentially some might not come back,” Obama said of his December
1 address.
“There is not a speech that I’ve made that hit me in the gut as much
as that speech.”
Asked on the CBS program “60 Minutes” if the decision to pour more
troops into Afghanistan was the toughest yet of his young presidency, he
replied: “Absolutely.”
But he cautioned against any triumphalist notion of war as he said
had occurred under his predecessor, George W. Bush.
“There was a tendency to say, ‘We can go in. We can kick some tail.
This is some glorious exercise.’ When in fact, this is a tough
business.”
Washington, Monday, AFP |
