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Patrick Doherty
Special to CNN
Before President Obama releases his strategy for Afghanistan, he should think twice about fully re-embracing Hamid Karzai.
By rigging the first round of elections with more than a million fraudulent votes, rigging the second round of elections with more than 500 'ghost' polling places to generate another flood of fake ballots and refusing to reform the electoral system, incumbent President Hamid Karzai abused his office to steal a democratic election from the people of Afghanistan.
Despite noises in Washington to the contrary, the thin veil of legitimacy Karzai enjoyed before the August elections is now gone, and the damage to any counterinsurgency strategy is immense. True counterinsurgency operations require the building of confidence and trust among ordinary citizens and their government - trust that it will deliver on whatever small expectations the Afghan people have of Kabul. To the extent that confidence was ever present, it is certainly now shattered.
Frances Beinecke
Special to CNN
When President Obama visits China next week, global climate change will top the agenda. The stakes could hardly be higher - for the two Pacific powers and for the world.
Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao have a chance to make a good-faith start at the kind of cooperation the rest of the world might rally around at the global climate summit next month in Copenhagen.
In September, I visited China, where my organization, the Natural Resources Defense Council, has been active for nearly 15 years. I was able to see firsthand the efforts the Chinese were undertaking to harness their clean-energy potential.
I toured the green Olympic Village in Beijing, attended a clean tech conference in Shanghai and met with China's top climate negotiator, Minister Xie Zhenhua.
Reporter's Note: President Obama seems to be facing some conflict in his team over his decision on the future of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Or rather, on his decision-in-the-works. That’s what I’m writing about in my daily letter.
Tom Foreman | BIO
AC360° Correspondent
Dear Mr. President,
The remnants of Hurricane Ida came rolling through town, so I guess you noticed the rain? I ask only because sometimes I get so busy following the news at my office, that I lose all track of the weather. I have a window, but there have been times when I just haven’t noticed if it is raining, snowing, blowing, or whatever until I leave the building. Anyway, I’m writing this at home with the rain still pitter-pattering outside and the dog asleep at my feet. My elder daughter’s high school chorus sang over at the University of Maryland tonight. My wife went, but I couldn’t make it; had to work late. But like I’ve said before, now is not the time to complain about a job. And that goes for you, too. Ha!
Speaking of work, I can’t help but be concerned about some of the reports coming out of your war room about the situation in Afghanistan. One advisor says send more troops, another says no don’t. Yes, yes, I know that every president wants everyone on his team to keep private conversations private, but in DC that’s like wanting a chocolate bar on the equator…it’s messy at best. And I must say that you are not making it easy for all your generals and advisors to keep their mouths shut.
Ed Rollins
CNN Senior Political Contributor
In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed the 11th day of the month as the first commemoration of Armistice Day.
It was the first anniversary of the end of the "Great War" and it was hoped we would never go into battle again. Unfortunately that is not how history turned out. The "Great War" became known as World War I. Many conflicts followed. Many more Americans went to war and many gave up their lives.
November 11 was renamed to honor our veterans in 1954 by one of America's greatest military leaders, 34th President Dwight David Eisenhower.
How strange that on the very eve of this day, President Obama was addressing a memorial service for the slain soldiers of last week's massacre at Fort Hood before the thousands of men and women who served with them on the Army's largest military base.
The president is the commander in chief and the task of sending young men and women into combat is the most serious duty he bears. As he ponders the decision to send more troops to Afghanistan, he saw the men and women of our Army up close. These are the soldiers who will be part of whatever decision he makes. And they are fabulous soldiers ready for whatever duty he requests of them.
Suzanne Malveaux and Mike Mount
CNN
President Obama is considering four scenarios to move forward in Afghanistan and is expected to discuss them at his eighth meeting with his war council on Wednesday afternoon, sources told CNN.
Though the options are not being spelled out, one is fairly well-defined.
That option, a senior administration official and U.S. military official independently confirmed, calls for sending about 34,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan.
A military official said the plan would send three Army brigades, totaling about 15,000 troops; a Marine brigade, about 8,000 troops; a headquarters element, about 7,000 troops; and 4,000 to 5,000 support troops.
CNN/Opinion Research Corp. Poll
Americans are split over whether President Barack Obama is taking too long to make a decision on whether to send more U.S. troops to the war in Afghanistan, according to a new national poll.
But the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey also indicates that by a narrow margin, Americans think that in making his decision, the president should listen to the recommendations of the generals in charge of U.S. troops in Afghanistan rather than taking other matters into account as well.
The poll's Wednesday morning release comes just hours before the president is scheduled to hold another meeting with his national security advisers to discuss policy in Afghanistan.
Reporter's Note: President Obama is relatively rare as presidents go, because he is not a military veteran. He is, however, the Commander in Chief of the armed forces, which is the subject of my daily letter to Pennsylvania Avenue.
Tom Foreman | BIO
AC360° Correspondent
Dear Mr. President,
A few years ago, when my dad was still living, our whole family had gathered for Thanksgiving and we went to a holiday show. During the middle of it, the announcer said something about honoring our veterans and asked them to stand. So my father and brother rose, along with dozens of others, and we all applauded. I was very proud.
Like you, I never served in the military. I considered it when I was younger and decided it really wasn’t the life for me, despite having grown up in an Air Force family. But my respect for the people who put on uniforms to defend our nation has never wavered, and having spent a lot of time around veterans I understand why we so often consider veterans for our public offices, especially the presidency. I don’t mean that as a slight to you. We’ve had about a dozen presidents with no military service in their background, and a handful more served in only state militias. And by and large I don’t recall any of them allowing the country to be overrun by invading hordes.
Still, I think veterans deserve an extra level of respect every day, because they chose to defend the rest of us; to risk their lives so that we can enjoy ours. It’s as simple as that.
Jay Newton-Small
Time
On Saturday morning, about 12 hours before the House of Representatives passed sweeping legislation to expand health care coverage to almost all Americans, President Barack Obama did what he does best: he gave an inspirational speech meant to rally recalcitrant House Democrats. Many in the room credited Obama with swaying the last of the fence sitters. "A few members that were leaning no told me afterward that they'd been moved to vote yes," Representative Rob Andrews, a New Jersey Democrat, told reporters after the meeting.
Obama spoke of doing something greater than yourself. He asked House Dems to join him in "bending the arc of history," a phrase he first invoked in his election-victory speech a year ago before 125,000 people in Chicago's Grant Park. And though there was cheering and chants of "Fired up, ready to go!" this was no easy sell for Obama. The vote came the same week as Democrats lost the Virginia and New Jersey governors' mansions, and a day after the Labor Department reported a 26-year record unemployment rate of 10.2%. Preaching altruism in such a climate to politicians bent on self-preservation is tough. In the end Democrats lost 39 of their own — passing the bill 220-215 with a cushion of just two votes, one of those a Republican in a heavily Democratic Louisiana district.
Democrats on Capitol Hill spent some of the aftermath congratulating themselves on their historic achievement, but they knew as well as anyone that it was far too early to really celebrate. Obama's speech, after all, was strikingly partisan, lambasting the GOP for doing nothing more than "saying no, stopping progress, gumming up the works." That change in tone from his fruitless attempts at outreach 10 months before in the run-up to the stimulus vote made it clear that Democrats are now resigned to going it alone both in the House and the Senate. Majority leader Harry Reid has moved away from the lone Republican still negotiating on health care, Maine's Olympia Snowe, and toward a plan to pass the bill relying solely on Democratic votes, of which he'll need every one in order to overcome the threat of a filibuster by Republicans.
Reporter's Note: President Obama is now pushing into Senate land with his health care reform hopes, and I’m pushing toward the 300th day of my letters to the White House.
Tom Foreman | BIO
AC360° Correspondent
Dear Mr. President,
Aghghhhh! (That’s the sound of me screaming) Your press secretary, Robert Gibbs, today did precisely the kind of thing that drives reporters and voters crazy. He was being pressed on a question: Do you (meaning you, the president… not him, the media flak) expect to sign a health care reform bill into law this year?
His answer, after tap dancing like the late, great Gregory Hines on a boardwalk, was, “The president wants to sign health care before the end of the year.” With all respect, that’s the kind of answer politicians give, not normal human beings. The question was direct and fair. You have made it clear that you see health care reform as an urgent matter. For a reporter to ask if that includes a timetable is reasonable. But when NBC’s Chuck Todd asked for clarity, he was greeted with derision. “How much clearer could I be?” Gibbs responded.
I’m going to go with, “a lot clearer.” The difference is vast between “The president wants to sign” and “The president intends to sign.” Or “expects to sign.” Or “is putting those Capitol Hill feather-weights on notice that he’d better have a bill by December 31st, or the Times Square ball won’t be the only thing being dropped on New Year’s Eve.” Saying the president “wants to sign” is clearly intended to push Congress; but it’s tough talk with a loophole; if you don’t get what you want, you’ll just say, “Well, we never set a deadline.”
Aaron David Miller
Special to CNN
When Barack Obama receives his Nobel Peace Prize next month in Oslo, Norway, one thing seems clear: It won't be in recognition of his skill in advancing Israeli-Palestinian peace.
For much of the past year, the administration has wandered around the not-so-Holy Land without clear direction, an accurate understanding of Israelis and Palestinians, or an effective strategy.
But all is not lost. The past 10 months could be, to use the president's words, a teachable moment, and with the right lessons learned, maybe, just maybe, the president could get back on track.
The lessons:
Keep your enthusiasm under control: In January, President Obama came out harder, faster and louder on Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking than any of his predecessors. The speech in Cairo, Egypt, and his ultimatum to the Israelis on freezing settlements seemed to suggest that this president was going to be tough and fair. No more business as usual.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, the political laws of gravity that make getting anything done on Arab-Israeli diplomacy very hard kicked in, dragging down the president's hopes and words.
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