By Jason Ditz
Reiterating comments from yesterday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs insisted that no policy changes will be announced on Thursday and that the public version of the Afghan War report won’t include any surprises.
Gibbs termed President Obama ‘pleased’ with the war, and insisted that he hopes to “strengthen capacity inside of Afghanistan” going forward. President Obama was said to have met with advisors earlier today regarding the war.
Gibbs was quite short of evidence of the “progress” in the Afghan War, insisting only that it was “obvious.” He did reference improved cooperation with Pakistan, however, which is probably poorly timed as Admiral Mullen is in Pakistan today berating the government for not having invaded North Waziristan yet.
At no point in his comments did Gibbs mention the open letter from a collection of foreign policy experts warning that the war is going “extremely poorly” for the U.S., and those comments are expected to be kept far from the official speech by President Obama on Thursday.
This article originally appeared on AntiWar.com.
How is one “pleased” with the way their war is going??? Pleased at what? How many prisoners taken or tortured? How many bodies? How much money has been poured into this fruitless endeavor that is a total farce? Pleased at how much profit the military industrial complex is making? And the entire war machine? What’s to be “pleased” about when you PROMISED to END THE WARS AND WITHDRAW THE TROOPS AND DID NOT DO THAT … IN FACT YOU STEPPED UP THE WARS, HAVE GONE INTO OTHER TERRITORY, ARE LOOKING TO START A 3RD OR 4TH AREA OF ENGAGEMENT AND WE STILL CARRY ON THE ILLEGAL BUSH PRACTICES OF ILLEGAL WAR AND TORTURE AND DETENTION. SOMETHING IS PROFOUNDLY WRONG WITH OUR COUNTRY. OTHER COUNTRIES KNOW IT, AND TOO MANY AMERICANS ARE EITHER APATHETIC OR COMPLICIT OR POWERLESS, BECAUSE OUR POWERS AND RIGHTS HAVE BEEN TAKEN FROM US. A VERY POOR THING TO BE “PLEASED” ABOUT.