President Obama responds to a question from CBS about the Afghan policy leaks:
"I think I am angrier than Bob Gates about it, partly because we have these deliberations in the Situation Room for a reason - because we are making decisions that are life-and-death, that affect how our troops will be able to operate in a theater of war. For people to be releasing information during the course of deliberation -- where we haven't made final decisions yet -- I think is not appropriate."
In the same breath as Obama pats himself on the back for making the tough decisions required of a wartime president, he simultaneously concedes that no, he hasn't actually made any "life-and-death" decisions on Afghanistan over the last four months. Meanwhile, the wires are reporting once again that the president is "very close" to making an actual decision -- i.e., a decision is "just weeks away." A very generous interpretation of the phrase "very close" indeed. It's like how President Bush was "very close" to making a decision about sending federal assistance to New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, and true to his word just a few weeks later there were FEMA trailers and everything.
Update: Gary Schmitt hits the above and adds:
Finally, the president also said that a "multi-year occupation" would not serve the interests of the United States and he repeatedly referred to the Afghan mission as "this thing"-as in, "the American people will have a lot of clarity about what we're doing, how we're going to succeed, how much this thing is going to cost" and "what's the end game on this thing."
"Occupation?" Does the president really think of the Afghan mission as an occupation? Doesn't that, in turn, mean the Taliban are "freedom fighters?" Presumably, the president's use of the term "occupation" was just sloppy on his part. And maybe his use of "this thing" is a product of a tired, travelling chief executive.
On the other hand, having spent several weeks supposedly knee-deep in reflection on Afghanistan and America's role there, the fact that he would have such slips of the tongue is hardly reassuring that his Afghan strategy review is headed in the right direction or, as we used to say, "his head is in the right place."
