Schieffer: The "Defining Moment" of Obama's Presidency

CBS News Chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer called President Obama's speech on Afghanistan Tuesday night "the defining moment of the Obama presidency."

"This was the night when Barack Obama that took full ownership of the war in Afghanistan," he said. "We're going to have 100,000 troops there, and more than half of them will have been sent there by the President."

In the speech, President Obama announced that 30,000 additional troops would be sent to Afghanistan.

The "Face the Nation" host also questioned Mr. Obama's strategy of setting a timetable for the troops to come home.

"How do you on the one hand say, 'we need to send these troops over there, it's critical, this is in our national security interest to do this'" Schieffer said, "but then say, 'but we're only going to keep 'em there for 18 months.'"

Full Text of Obama's Remarks
Obama Lays Out New Afghanistan Strategy

"I just don't understand the logic of how that works," Schieffer added. "How you can set a deadline on what you're going to do, and you know, this is not a football game where there's a clock where the time runs out."

More Coverage of Obama's Speech on Afghanistan:
Marc Ambinder's Analysis: Obama Taking Big Risk
Who Offers the Better Deal in Afghanistan?
Liberal Lawmakers, Activists Chastise Afghanistan Troop Increase
Polling Analysis: Afghanistan 2009 Vs. Iraq 2007
CBSNews.com Special Report: Afghanistan

2 Comments +


by allmandong March 9, 2010 9:00 AM EST: What brought about the Islamic terrorism? It is US Government?s wrong support to Israel. They broke the peace agreements they had made refusing to return the land to Palestinians by enlarging their residency and maltreating the Palestinians there. Japanese governor was associated by a Korean man named Ahn in 1909 when Japan forced her to sign the agreement intending to govern Korea eventually. Japanese court sentenced him to death. But he has been respected as a national hero by his country people until now. War in Iraq was a wrong choice. War is painful and expensive. There should have been better reasons for it. Bush went to Iraq only to lose many lives and national wealth to satisfy his hatred against dictators only naming them "Axis of Devils". should they have been wrong for him to be right? Why not tried to find the middle ground?

What America is supposed to do in Afghanistan is to help the Afghan government to be strong enough to protect themselves from the Islamic terrorists in the southern region . But how? Just providing endless support and security? Haven helps those who help themselves. We should give a chance Afghan government to help themselves. 18 month withdraw plan is a right decision. He did not say, ?withdraw all the forces at once.? but ?Gradually.? It is a right policy to help them to stand up themselves as soon as possible, isn?t it?; Reply to this comment


by stn_sage December 2, 2009 1:39 AM EST: Yes, the defining moment when much of the public came to realize that this is NOT the man they thought they had placed in the White House to enact CHANGE, and found out that he is a Bush-clone...and won't vote for him again.; Reply to this comment