Obama: Focus on Al Qaeda (Just Like Bush)

President Obama told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the Bush administration had lost its focus in Afghanistan and that his team will “refocus attention on al Qaeda.” He additionally promised that “we now have resourced properly this strategy. It’s not going to be an open-ended commitment of infinite resources. We’ve just got to make sure that we are focused on achieving what we need to achieve with the resources we have.”

Except — and I hate to sound like a broken record here — the administration has no exit strategy for Afghanistan. It claims to have milestones but has not actually articulated any.

As to the idea that the mission previously lacked a focus on the al Qaeda threat, we are already beating al Qaeda, with senior U.S. officials saying the terrorist group’s leadership has been “decimated” and saying a “complete al Qaeda defeat” is in the offing.

I’ve been asking since Friday’s release of the new plan:  What’s so new about it? Now, Thomas Barnett is wondering the same thing.

• Beating Al Qaeda But Losing in Afghanistan?
• The New Strategy for Afghanistan
• NATO Can Survive Afghanistan Failure
• Afghanistan Reboot Needed
• Al Qaeda On The Brink Of Collapse?