President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the Hall of Honour for a joint news conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa today. (Photo by Tom Hanson / The Canadian Press, Tom Hanson)
by Mike Dorning
OTTAWA, Canada -- President Barack Obama today made his first public comments on the increase in U.S. troops he ordered for Afghanistan this week, leaving open the possibility that he would add more troops at the end of an ongoing strategic review.
Obama, who ordered an increase of 17,000 troops that fell short of a request made by the U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, said he did not want to "prejudge" the result of the review, which he said would be completed in two months.
"I authorized the additional troops because I knew it was necessary to stabilize the situation," said Obama, who was asked about the troop increase at a news conference during a visit to Canada, his first foreign trip as president.
Obama offered thanks to Canada for its 2,800-strong troop contingent in Afghanistan, but said he did not "press" Prime Minister Stephen Harper in their talks here to extend a 2011 deadline that the Canadian parliament has set for withdrawing Canada's troops from Afghanistan.
The agenda for the president's seven-hour visit to Canada stressed trade issues between the United States and Canada, two countries with the world's largest trading relationship.
After calling to renegotiate NAFTA during his campaign, Obama offered a public assurance that he wants to "grow, not contract" trade with Canada in a joint news conference with Harper.
Obama assumed a soft stance on NAFTA, saying that in the midst of a global economic recession he wanted to "to be very careful about any signals of protectionism."
But Obama said he made clear in his discussions with Harper that he would like to strengthen labor and environmental standards now included in side agreements by incorporating them in the NAFTA treaty.
But Harper, an ideological conservative who leads a country that generates one-third of its gross domestic product from exports to the United States, offered a polite lesson on the perils of reopening a trade agreement.
Harper said he hoped to "address some of his concerns without opening the whole agreement and unraveling what is a very complicated agreement."
Comments
Doesn't look like many countries take Obama very seriously, does it?
He was already caught asleep-at-the-wheel while the Russians snaked the Kyrgizstani air base so vital to any planned Afghan surge. The Kremlin also had announced new weapons programs on the day Obama was elected, testing him as the USSR did the inexperienced JFK.
It doesn't look like Hamid Karzai has much faith either, especially after Barack insulted him and accused him of being a drug trafficker... just like Jimmy Carter abandonded vital allies like Samoza and The Shah over vague "concerns"... only to have them replaced by far, far worse regimes. So Karzai is looking to strike deals with an insatiable enemy, like Europe looked to do with the USSR during the the incompetent Carter years.
http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com
Posted by: Reaganite Republican | February 20, 2009 6:58 AM