Word: afghanistan
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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President Obama's first speech about Afghanistan back in March took place in a government office building on a stage lined with bureaucrats at 9:40 in the morning, when most Americans focus on coffee, not TV. In its wake, polls showed that somewhere between 60% and 70% of the country supported his plan to send more troops to fight a seven-year-old war in a distant desert...
...proud Army leaders in training. In a steady, grim cadence, Obama made the case for putting yet another 30,000 Americans in harm's way. "If I did not think that the security of the United States and the safety of the American people were at stake in Afghanistan, I would gladly order every one of our troops home tomorrow," he said. "This is no idle danger, no hypothetical threat...
...appeal was packaged in emotion. He spoke of visiting wounded warriors at Walter Reed Medical Center, and of signing condolence letters for Americans who have died - 299 so far this year - in Afghanistan. He evoked the wisdom of Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower, and announced that Americans were "heirs to a noble struggle for freedom," with a "resolve unwavering." But none of it really distracted from the difficulty of the task. Less than a year into his presidency, Obama had to come before the nation to explain that it was losing a war. "The status quo is not sustainable...
...Obama's advisers have taken to calling the latest effort a "troop surge," an ironic term for an Administration that came to power by rejecting President Bush's "surge" of troops into Iraq. But nothing about Afghanistan has gone as expected. In March, his advisers spoke of the new strategy as a break from the past. Obama had then spoken of a "way forward." His speech Tuesday night was titled "The Way Forward in Afghanistan and Pakistan...
...well-timed for Obama's 2012 re-election campaign. In the meantime, Obama faces pushback from members of his own party, who have been complaining loudly about the wisdom and cost of the decision. "The U.S. government is already spending $3.6 billion a month on the war in Afghanistan," said Representative Louise Slaughter of New York in a statement after the speech. "I see no good reason for us to send another 30,000 or more troops to Afghanistan when we have so many pressing issues - like our economy - to deal with in this country...