Michael Crowley has a useful roundup of comments from top Obama advisers who are now trying to explain the 2011 date that Obama described as follows:
Taken together, these additional American and international troops will allow us to accelerate handing over responsibility to Afghan forces, and allow us to begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011. Just as we have done in Iraq, we will execute this transition responsibly, taking into account conditions on the ground.
Hillary Clinton testified today, “I do not believe we have locked ourselves in to leaving.” General David Petraeus conceded in an MSNBC interview that there is “tension” between our commitment and the transfer date but focused on the “conditions” aspect of the equation. And prepared testimony by Robert Gates explained:
The essence of our civil-military plan is to clear, hold, build, and transfer. Beginning to transfer security responsibility to the Afghans in summer 2011 is critical — and, in my, view achievable. This transfer will occur district by district, province by province, depending on conditions on the ground. The process will be similar to what we did in Iraq, where international security forces provided “overwatch” — first at the tactical level, then at the strategic level. Even after we transfer security responsibility to the Afghans and draw down our combat forces, the United States will continue to support their development as an important partner for the long haul. We will not repeat the mistakes of 1989, when we abandoned the country only to see it descend into civil war, and then into Taliban hands.
That is a lot of explaining, or some would call it damage control, to try to remove the impression from last night that the president was hedging our bets and limiting our commitment. Unfortunately, no one has a microphone or an audience as big as the president does, and he will have to re-enforce the message that his advisers carried today if he means it. There is no substitute for hearing the message from the lips of the commander in chief. That is why, after all, he wanted to give a big speech. He may need to deliver many more in the weeks and months ahead.