Obama sets course for exit from Afghanistan

  President Barack Obama announced a plan on Wednesday to start withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan in a first step toward ending the long, costly war and returning America's focus toward it's own troubled economy.

Obama said he would pull 10,000 troops from Afghanistan by year's end, followed by about 23,000 more by the end of next summer and a steady withdrawal of remaining troops after that.

In a 15-minute televised address, Obama vowed that the United States -- struggling to restore its global image, repair its faltering economy and bring down the high jobless rate at home -- would end a decade of military adventures prompted by the September 11 attacks in 2001 and exercise new restraint with American military power.

"Tonight, we take comfort in knowing that the tide of war is receding," Obama said, heralding the gradual drawdown of US forces in Iraq and the limited US involvement in the ongoing international campaign in Libya.

"America, it is time to focus on nation building at home."

Yet news that Obama will pull the entire 'surge' force he sent to Afghanistan in 2010 is certain to fuel friction between Obama and his military advisors who have warned about the perils of a hasty drawdown.

Nearly 10 years after the Taliban government was toppled, US and NATO forces have been unable to deal a decisive blow to the resurgent Islamist group. The Afghan government remains weak and notoriously corrupt, and billions of dollars in foreign aid efforts have yielded meager results.

Obama's decision on trimming the US force was a more aggressive approach than many expected. It went beyond the options offered by General David Petraeus, the outgoing commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, whom Obama has picked to lead the CIA.

The president's decision reflected the competing pressures he faces as he seeks to curb spending and halt US casualties without allowing the threat of extremist attacks to fester.

Outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he supported Obama's decision. But the plan is unlikely to sit well with the Pentagon's top brass who worry insurgents could regain lost territory as fighting intensifies along Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan.

"We've undercut a strategy that was working. I think the 10,000 troops leaving this year is going to make this fighting season more difficult. Having all the surge forces leave by next summer is going to compromise next summer's fighting season," said Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Even after the withdrawal of the 33,00 US troops, about 70,000 will remain in Afghanistan, about twice the number there when Obama took office.

Reaction from the US Congress was mixed, as lawmakers impatient with a war that now costs more than $110 billion a year complained Obama should have embraced a larger drawdown.

Unease in Washington over the war has escalated with worries about massive budget deficits, spiraling national debt and unemployment running at more than 9 percent. These are Americans' chief concerns and the issues likely to drive voters in next year's presidential election.

Obama clearly has been mindful of the US public's lack of support for the war as he eyes his re-election campaign.

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Obama ignored legal advice on Libya war

Barack Obama overruled the advice of administration lawyers in deciding the US could continue participatingin the Libya conflict without congressional approval.






The White House insists the president did not need congressional approval to authorise US support for Nato's mission, because the military campaign is limited in scope.



Critics argue the action violates a Vietnam War-era law limiting military action without congressional approval to 60 days.



 Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson and acting head of the justice department's Office of Legal Counsel Caroline Krass had advised Obama that the US involvement in the Libya air campaign constituted "hostilities".


But the US president opted to follow the advice of White House counsel Robert Bauer and state department legal adviser Harold Koh, who argued the US involvement fell short of "hostilities.



US presidents can override the legal conclusions of the Office of Legal Counsel, but it is very rare for that to happen, analysts say.


The War Powers Resolution of 1973 states Congress must authorise participation in hostilities longer than 60 days, although the president can seek a 30-day extension.

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Republicans pound Barack Obama

Republican presidential candidates led by frontrunner Mitt Romney used their first big televised debate to lash out at President Barack Obama -- but not each other.
The debate in Manchester, New Hampshire, late Monday did little to define differences between the seven candidates in the unwieldy Republican line-up as White House hopefuls reserved their venom for Obama on the economy and foreign policy.
The civil exchanges left Romney, who has a slight, but consistent lead in the polls, still looking like the man to beat for the nomination.
Standing behind the centre podium in CNN's ultra modern studio, the carefully combed Romney looked suitably presidential as he led the charge against Obama.
"Any one of the people on this stage would be a better president than President Obama," Romney said.
"Why isn't the president leading? He isn't balancing our budget and he isn't leading on jobs. He's failed the American people... And that's why he's not going to be reelected."
Michele Bachmann, a congresswoman and leading light of the staunchly conservative Tea Party movement, momentarily upstaged the other six when she used her opening comments to announce that she had just formally registered her candidacy.
Bachmann, the only woman on the stage, pulled her punches when opportunities came to attack Romney, but she almost shouted during assaults on Obama.
"President Obama has failed his leadership," she charged.
Newt Gingrich, a veteran Republican who was speaker of the House of Representatives in the 1990s, piled in to attack "the Obama depression."
The presidential election is not until November 2012. But candidates were using this event -- the first of many over the coming months -- to solidify their sometimes poor name recognition across the country and position themselves for a grueling campaign.

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Obama calls on private sector to create jobs

US president Barack Obama on Saturday called for the private sector to create more jobs, but underlined the government’s role in promoting professional education.
‘Now, government is not — and should not be — the main engine of job-creation in this country. That’s the role of the private sector,’ the president said in his weekly radio and internet address.
‘But one thing government can do is partner with the private sector to make sure that every worker has the necessary skills for the jobs they’re applying for,’ Obama added.
His comments came after labour department figures showed only 54,000 new jobs had been created in May, just a quarter of the February-April pace; the unemployment rate had edged up to 9.1 per cent.
The White House and economists cautioned that the poor data was likely a monthly blip, but it has fuelled allegations that Obama’s economic policies are failing, 18 months ahead of the presidential election.
The president noted that the US economy had not got into what he called a ‘mess’ overnight, and would not resolve its problems quickly.
‘It’s going to take time,’ he warned.
Obama pointed to the importance of investing in wind power, solar power, and biofuels to make America less dependent on foreign oil and to clean up the environment.
‘These are steps we know will make a difference in people’s lives — not just twenty years from now, or ten years from now, but now, and in the months to come,’ the president said.

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Hillary warns Africa of 'new colonialism'

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday warned Africa of a creeping "new colonialism" from foreign investors and governments interested only in extracting the continent's natural resources to enrich themselves and not the African people.
Hillary said that African leaders must ensure that foreign projects are sustainable and benefit all their citizens, not only elites. A day earlier, she cautioned that China's massive investments and business interests in Africa need to be closely watched so that the African people are not taken advantage of.
"It is easy, and we saw that during colonial times, it is easy to come in, take out natural resources, pay off leaders and leave," Clinton said. "And when you leave, you don't leave much behind for the people who are there. We don't want to see a new colonialism in Africa."
Clinton said the United States didn't want foreign governments and investors to fail in Africa, but they should also give back to the local communities.
"We want them to do well, but also we want them to do good," she said.
"We don't want them to undermine good governance, we don't want them to basically deal with just the top elites, and frankly too often pay for their concessions or their opportunities to invest."
Clinton said that American development aid and infrastructure projects come with good governance conditions and that the Obama administration is interested in Africa and the African people. Their success, she said, is in the long-term interest of both the African people and the US.
She spoke in a pan-African television interview in the Zambian capital. Clinton is the first secretary of state to visit Zambia since Henry Kissinger came in 1976.

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Start of Afghan transition on track for July: NATO

Plans are on track for Afghan forces to take charge of security in seven areas of Afghanistan from late July with a second phase of the handover starting in December, NATO commanders said on Thursday. Major-General Tim Evans, a senior British officer with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), on a video link from Afghanistan, said the first set of areas would start transferring from ISAF to Afghan control on July 20. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in March that seven areas would be included in the initial phase of transition, the first step in a long process due to end with the withdrawal of all foreign combat troops from Afghanistan by 2014. Karzai has said the transition would begin in the Afghan month of Saratan, which runs from June 22 to July 22 on the Western calendar, but has not given an exact date. Lieutenant-General David Rodriguez, the second most senior US commander in Afghanistan, speaking on the same video conference with reporters, said the Afghan government was "walking through all the plans and preparations now" for the first phase of transition. Afghan authorities had begun "face-to-face meetings down at the local level" in preparation for the handover and were very satisfied with ISAF's plans to support the transition, he said. "They are already looking forward to the next group (of areas for transition) that will be announced in the fall and initiate the process in December," said Rodriguez, commander of day-to-day operations for the 150,000-strong NATO-led force. TROOP DRAWDOWN The move is part of NATO's strategy to hand over responsibility to an expanding Afghan force gradually, allowing reductions in foreign forces currently battling Taliban insurgents. President Barack Obama is expected to announce soon he will bring home a sizable number of the 100,000 US troops in Afghanistan starting in July. The relatively peaceful provinces of Bamiyan and Panjshir, the western city of Herat, areas around the capital Kabul and part of eastern Laghman province are among the first areas to be handed over. Also on the transition list are Mazar-i-Sharif in the north and Lashkar Gah, capital of volatile southern Helmand province. Evans said the transition did not mean that all British troops in Lashkar Gah would suddenly leave in July. "We've got to make sure we still support the Afghan forces," he said. But if conditions allowed, troops from areas that had been handed over would be moved to help other areas progress toward transition, he said. Evans also said that the level of violence during this year's "fighting season" was likely to be "as high if not higher than last year" because ISAF forces were pursuing insurgents. NATO had anticipated that the insurgents might concentrate on areas singled out for transition to Afghan control, he said. Osama bin Laden's killing in a US raid in Pakistan last month has fueled calls in the United States for a faster drawdown of troops. Rodriguez said the al Qaeda leader's death had so far had no discernible effect on the ground, although he hoped bin Laden's influence on the Taliban would now decline.

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Obama holds big 2012 lead over Republicans

President Obama greets a student during a visit to Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria, Virginia, June 8, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque

President Barack Obama retains a big lead over possible Republican rivals in the 2012 election despite anxiety about the economy and the country's future, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll on Wednesday.
Obama's approval rating inched up 1 percentage point from May to 50 percent but the number of Americans who believe the country is on the wrong track also rose as pricier gasoline, persistently high unemployment and a weak housing market chipped away at public confidence.
Obama leads all potential Republican challengers by double-digit margins, the poll showed. He is ahead of his closest Republican rival, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, by 13 percentage points -- 51 percent to 38 percent.
"Obama's position has gotten a little stronger over the last couple of months as the public mood has evened out, and as an incumbent he has some big advantages over his rivals," Ipsos pollster Cliff Young said.
"Until Republicans go through a primary season and select a nominee, they are going to be at a disadvantage in the head-to-head matchups in name recognition."
Obama, who got a boost in the polls last month with the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, is amassing an election campaign warchest likely to be larger than the record $750 million he raised in 2008.
Sarah Palin and Romney lead the Republicans battling for the right to challenge Obama in the November 2012 election.
Palin, the party's vice presidential nominee in 2008, had the support of 22 percent of the Republicans surveyed. The former governor of Alaska has not said whether she will run for president next year.
Romney, who failed in a 2008 presidential bid, had 20 percent support.
Representative Ron Paul, a libertarian Republican from Texas, and former pizza executive Herman Cain were tied for third with 7 percent each.
REPUBLICAN RACE STILL FORMING
The Republican candidates are just starting to engage in their slow-starting nomination race. Young said Palin and Romney had a clear advantage at this stage over other challengers in name recognition among voters.
Other surveys have shown Romney in a stronger position. A Washington Post-ABC News poll earlier this week gave Romney a slight lead over Obama among registered voters.
In the Reuters/Ipsos poll, the other Republican contenders fared even worse than Romney's 13-point gap in a match-up with Obama. Palin trailed Obama by 23 points and former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty was behind by 19 points.
The survey was taken after weak jobs and housing figures released last week showed the U.S. economy is recovering slower than expected. Unemployment rose slightly to 9.1 percent for the month.
The poll found 60 percent of respondents said the country is on the wrong track, up from 56 percent in May but still below April's high of 69 percent. In the latest survey, 35 percent said the country is going in the right direction.
Obama's approval rating has drifted in a narrow range between 49 percent and 51 percent since January, with the exception of April when the first spike in gasoline prices drove his rating lower.
With Congress battling over a Republican budget plan that includes scaling back the federal Medicare health program for the elderly, the poll found a plurality of Americans, 43 percent, oppose the Medicare cuts and 37 percent support them.
The poll, conducted Friday through Monday, surveyed 1,132 adults nationwide by telephone, including 948 registered voters. The margin of error is 3 percentage points.

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Pakistan Leaders Must Make Choice After Clinton’s Warning: View

Illustration by Bloomberg View

By the Editors Jun 2, 2011 6:29 AM GMT+0600 0 Comments

• 
  

When U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Pakistan last week, she noted that U.S.- Pakistani relations were at a turning point after the killing of Osama bin Laden. It was up to the Pakistanis, she said, to decide “what kind of country they wish to live in.”
The brutalized body of investigative journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad, which turned up outside of Islamabad on May 31, may provide a clue to the answer.
Shahzad disappeared after publishing the first of two promised articles linking elements of the Pakistan navy to al- Qaeda following a deadly May 22 attack on a Karachi naval station. Last fall, after being questioned about a different story by Pakistan’s Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Shahzad wrote that he was threatened by the spy agency.
Alternatively, it could be that foul play like Shahzad’s murder will become a thing of the past in Pakistan. While in Islamabad May 27, Clinton and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen demanded authorities take “decisive steps” to crush the violent extremists the government has long supported, which would end the need to intimidate journalists who expose that support. Whichever way the Pakistan government goes, the May warnings by the U.S. ought to be the last.
The U.S. administration has continued to insist, as President Barack Obama did in a May 22 interview with the BBC, that the Pakistanis have “generally been significant and serious partners against the terrorist threat to the West.” This simply isn’t the case.

Victim, Sponsor

For much of the past decade, Pakistan has been both a victim and a sponsor of Islamic militants. Its soldiers are fighting bravely against homegrown terrorists seeking to install an Islamic government. In 20 attacks in May, these radicals killed some 150 people.
At the same time, the Pakistani army, led by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, is a longstanding patron of violent groups targeting Afghanistan and India. Guided by excessive fear bordering on paranoia about India, Pakistan’s military and intelligence services believe that nurturing those extremists is an effective way to frustrate India’s regional ambitions. The ISI largely created and continues to support the Taliban and the Haqqani Network, the principal groups battling U.S. forces in Afghanistan and the fledgling government in Kabul. It also backs Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group responsible for the 2008 attacks in Mumbai that killed more than 160 people.

Double-Dealing

President George W. Bush’s administration tried to end this double-dealing by giving Pakistan billions in economic and military assistance. Yet Bush didn’t make the aid contingent on a crackdown on extremists. The Pakistanis cooperated somewhat with U.S. efforts to dismantle al-Qaeda but refused to act against other groups, including the Afghan Taliban, which was given refuge inside Pakistan’s borders.
The Obama administration accelerated the failed Bush policy, substantially increasing military and economic assistance, again without imposing rigorous conditions. And Pakistan continued to ignore administration warnings about continued support for extremists.
In one incident reported by the Washington Post, Obama’s first national security adviser, James Jones, warned officials in Islamabad that there would be “consequences” if a terrorist attack directed at the U.S. was traced to Pakistan. Yet when a man who had trained at a terrorist camp in that country attempted to detonate a car bomb in Times Square in May 2010, the U.S. administration did nothing. Shortly thereafter, Obama watered down Jones’s words, telling Kayani that a “successful” attack would have consequences.

Meaning Business

So when U.S. authorities learned that Osama bin Laden might be housed in a villa in a Pakistani garrison town, they dispatched Navy Seals to capture or kill him without so much as notifying the Pakistanis in advance. The raid provoked great outrage from officials in Pakistan. Since then, emotions have cooled. Clinton and Mullen have delivered their warnings, public and private. And this time, the Americans may mean business.
Will the Pakistanis respond?
Shahzad’s murder is a bad sign. On the other hand, reports from Pakistani tribal leaders suggest that the Pakistani army may be preparing a serious campaign in North Waziristan, where the leaders of the Haqqani Network and other extremist groups live.
It will soon be clear whether Clinton’s latest message got through. If not, the administration must consider new ways to persuade Pakistan to change course, recognizing that the country is behaving more like an adversary than a partner

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