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The Los Angeles Times’ Doyle McManus, writing in a December 2, 2009, analysis of President Barack Obama’s December 1, 2009, address to the world about the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, makes this revelation:
Over lunch in the White House library a few hours before the speech, Obama spoke passionately to a small group of journalists about his fears that the cost of the war could obstruct his ambitious domestic agenda the way the Vietnam War wrecked Lyndon Johnson's programs.
"I am painfully clear that this is politically unpopular, precisely because the American people are rightly focused on how do we rebuild America," he said. "I would prefer not having to deal with two wars right now, because we've got a lot of other business we've got to do.”
“I'm interested in nation-building here in the United States right now," he said. "We cannot afford another trillion dollars" in war spending.”
Mr. McManus added: “And he sounded understandably frustrated by his choices in Afghanistan. "None of this is easy," he said. "We are choosing from a menu of options that are less than ideal."
For more, please see “Obama's Afghanistan strategy counts on time as an ally.”
