Pres. Obama Admits 2011 Full Troop Withdrawal Won't Happen

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Combative Pres. Obama defends Afghan plans



President Obama tacitly acknowledged in an interview broadcast Sunday that few American troops may actually be withdrawn from Afghanistan in July of 2011, the draw-down date he set earlier this month.

“[A]s Commander in Chief, obviously, I reserve the option to do what I think is going to be best for the American people at that point in time,” Obama said on CBS’s “60 Minutes” in response to a suggestion that many U.S. combat forces will still remain in the country beyond then.

He said it would be clear by the end of next year whether the surge of 30,000 American troops into Afghanistan had been effective in securing the country and bolstering its security forces.

“And if the approach that’s been recommended doesn’t work, then yes, we’re going to be changing approaches,” Obama explained.

His comments seemed to put the stamp of the commander-in-chief on the more direct statement voiced a week ago by Defense Secretary Robert Gates that July 2011 would only mark the beginning of U.S. forces returning home.

Asked by CBS’s Steve Kroft why he was even setting a deadline, Obama said that otherwise “the message we are sending to the Afghans is, ‘It's business as usual. This is an open-ended commitment.’”

Obama, who has sat for a series of high-profile interviews with Kroft dating back to before he even announced his intention to run for president, appeared combative at times with a familiar interlocutor.

When Kroft suggested that Obama seemed to lack emotion in delivering his Afghanistan speech at West Point, the president responded with a jab at the Bush administration.

“[O]ne of the mistakes that was made over the last eight years [was] for us to have a triumphant sense about war,” Obama said. “There was a tendency to say, ‘We can go in. We can kick some tail. This is some glorious exercise.’ When in fact, this is a tough business.”

And when Kroft said the address was “greeted with a great deal of confusion,” Obama interjected.

“I disagree with that statement,” the president shot back, observing that “a whole bunch of people understood what we intend to do.”

Obama also made no attempt to conceal his irritation when Kroft brought up the reality TV aspirants who crashed a White House State dinner last month.

It's really a shame that I had to go through a whole 60 Minutes interview without talking about the gate crashers,” Obama said with a laugh. “Good catch.”

Pressed on the incident, Obama offered a bit of unprompted media criticism.

“I don't think that from a policy perspective, this was - the most important thing or even the fifth or sixth most important thing that happened this week, although it got the most news,” he said.

It wasn’t just reporters who seemed to be annoying the president.

He also offered a harsh critique of Wall Street, acknowledging that some banks have paid back the funds they took from the TARP program to avoid compensation restrictions that would prevent them from lavishing big bonuses.

“I think [that] tells me that the people on Wall Street still don't get it,” Obama said… .They're still puzzled why is it that people are mad at the banks. Well, let's see. You guys are drawing down $10, $20 million bonuses after America went through the worst economic year that it's gone through in decades, and you guys caused the problem. And we've got ten percent unemployment. Why do you think people might be a little frustrated?”

The president’s former colleagues on Capitol Hill didn’t go entirely unspared, either.

Asked why new financial regulations had not been implemented, he said with a laugh: “Well, everything appears to take long in Congress. We can talk about health care if you want. This is democracy in action.”

Obama did, though, say he thought the Senate would pass a bill by Christmas.


Sources: CBS, 60 Minutes, Politico, The Daily Beast