Abdullah Abdullah pulled out; Obama still can't make up his mindWhile he has delayed and dithered, President Obama has tried to deflect the responsibility for Afghanistan policy to the Afghani government. You see, our fearless Ditherer-In-Chief would like to delay his decision on sending more troops to the region for as long as possible. And that is why he is waiting on the presidential run-off scheduled for November 7. And that strategy just blew up in a big way:
Afghanistan's run-off presidential election has been thrown into uncertainty after the withdrawal of opposition candidate Abdullah Abdullah.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai is now the only candidate left in the contest, but the Independent Electoral Commission believes the November 7 poll should go ahead even though it will be a one-man race.
Source: ABC News
Ouch.
So now that the run-off is a foregone conclusion, what is President Obama's decision?
The decision Sunday by former Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah to quit the runoff, less than a week before it was set to happen, creates yet another headache for the White House as it struggles to draw up a new battle plan for the eight-year Afghanistan war — including whether to send tens of thousands more U.S. troops to fight.
"We are going to deal with the government that is there," senior Obama adviser David Axelrod said. "And obviously there are issues we need to discuss, such as reducing the high level of corruption. These are issues we'll take up with President Karzai."
Axelrod said Obama would announce a war strategy "within weeks." A senior U.S. official told The Associated Press that Obama has still not yet decided what to do, and it remains unclear whether he will decide before he goes to Asia on Nov. 11.
Source: AP
Fantastic. Do we need any more evidence that this delay is tied directly to the fate of the healthcare reform bill?
