* What's the mission?
* What's the exit strategy?
* How are we going to pay for this?
After watching the speech I still have the same questions. The closest President Obama came to answering any of these was when he discussed the mission (kind of).
Apparently we're keeping troops in Afghanistan for two reasons. First, to help keep al Qaeda out. In essence we're President Karzai's (and the Saudi's) hired guns. I can't make it any simpler than this. Second, we're in Afghanistan because we're concerned about the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Not only do we have other options here (e.g. the UN or the CIA) but it would be easier if President Obama just made the case that the border region is where we need to be. Explaining Pakistan's nukes falling into al Qaeda's hands is an easier sell.
Still, at the end of the day neither one of these reasons come close to formulating a broad based plan.
Count me as still unconvinced. With what I heard we should be leaving.
- Mark
UPDATE: Former National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, chimes in with his observations on putting an additional 30,000 troops in Afghanistan. I think he's spot on.
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