Obama's war in Afghanistan

US President Barack Obama has named General David Petraeus as new chief commander in Afghanistan. With the dismissal of US General Stanley McChrystal Obama has made the military mission in Afghanistan his own war, writes the daily Der Standard: "Obama is no warlord, but like the great majority of his countrymen he believes that military operations are sometimes necessary. ... Afghanistan is (not yet) a Vietnam and a hasty US withdrawal would leave the country and the region in the hands of America's worst enemies. So Obama will hardly be able to keep his promise of beginning troop withdrawals in 2011. He won't have any allies left for his war then. The McChrystal affair was Obama's last chance to pull the ripcord. Instead he's doubled the stakes and turned Afghanistan into his own war - a gloomy prospect for a man who had planned something very different for his country."

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