Obama forced to back off Afghan exit plans

NY Times:

The Obama administration sent a forceful public message Sunday that American military forces could remain in Afghanistan for a long time, seeking to blunt criticism that President Obama had sent the wrong signal in his war-strategy speech last week by projecting July 2011 as the start of a withdrawal.

In a flurry of coordinated television interviews, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other top administration officials said that any troop pullout beginning in July 2011 would be slow and that the Americans would only then be starting to transfer security responsibilities to Afghan forces under Mr. Obama’s new plan.

The television appearances by the senior members of Mr. Obama’s war council seemed to be part of a focused and determined effort to ease concerns about the president’s emphasis on setting a date for reducing America’s presence in Afghanistan after more than eight years of war.

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It was necessary because the discussion of an early exit was a major mistake by the Obama administration. It was apparently meant to put pressure on the Afghans, but it wound up blowing up in the face of the administration as people like John McCain challenged the plan.

It was clearly a bad idea and this coordinated talk fest to cover the retreat from the plans for retreat is an admission of the error.