On the evening of March 19, 2009, Lawrence Korb spoke at the University of Pittsburgh.
Korb discussed Obama’s plans for Afghansistan at length. He said, “The indications are that, you know, he’s gonna be going big in Afghanistan.”
He acknowledged that this is a betrayal of what his supporters — many of whom are anti-war — were led to believe about Obama’s agenda during his campaign.
“A lot of people say, ‘Well, no. We voted for him because we didn’t want [to go] to any wars!’” Korb said with an amused smirk.
In a mocking tone, he continued: “And… you know on the ‘BLOGOSPHERE’ you should see the stuff. I mean, these people are mobilizing to stop going to Afghanistan.”
But Korb did not seem to think that this pervasive, adamant grassroots opposition to “going big” in Afghanistan should give Obama a moment’s pause, despite the fact that, according to Korb, “seeing it through” will require America to pay a high price, in both money and lives.
“I think what the president has to say if he wants to do it is be honest with the American people and say, ‘Look, if you want to do this, and you want to do it right, you’re going to be there for another ten years.’” Korb said.
Later, Korb indicated that ten years may not even be long enough. He said, “Within ten years it should be okay if you do everything right. But there’s no guarantee.” (emphasis added)
This is especially noteworthy considering that he also acknowledged that so far “we haven’t done it very well”
Korb went on to say (possibly still in presidential ventriloquist mode), “You’re gonna have to have at least 100,000 troops… and what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna put the troops in the areas to protect the population [inaud] where the Taliban is. That’s gonna be more casualities, okay? And you’re gonna have to do that, and it’s gonna be expensive.”
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