Friday, July 2, 2010

Michael Steele Attacks: Afghan War "of Obama's Choosing"

Any time you hear Michael Steele speak, you have to be ready for something controversial and perplexing to come out of his mouth. Once again, he doesn't disappoint. Now he's attacking Afghanistan as a war "of Obama's choosing." It'll be interesting to see what the fallout over this will be...

GOP's Steele doubts Afghan troop surge, calls conflict "a war of Obama's choosing"

July 02, 2010 11:10 AM

ABC's Z. Byron Wolf reports:RNC Chairman Michael Steele, in comments that will put him at odds with the rest of his party and historical fact, calls American military involvement in Afghanistan “a war of Obama’s choosing” and questions direct U.S. military involvement there.

“This is not something the United States actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in,” says Steele, ignoring the invasion of Afghanistan by U.S. and NATO forces in 2001.

Steele later says of the President: “Well if he’s such a student of history, has he not understood that that’s the one thing you don’t do is engage in a land war in Afghanistan. Alright? Because everyone who has tried over a thousand years of history, has failed. And there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan without committing more troops.”

Steele says the US should be playing an advisory, "background" role in Afghanistan.

“It was one of those areas in the total board of foreign policy in the Middle East, that we would be in the background, sort of shaping the changes that were necessary in Afghanistan, as opposed to directly engaging troops.”

Steele's comments can be viewed in amateur video, apparently shot at a fund raiser in North Carolina and posted on YouTube, Steele says that the American military is currently involved in Afghanistan because President Obama was “trying to be cute by half” during the 2008 election.