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On Friday, President Barack Obama outlined his administration’s strategy for the war in Afghanistan calling the situation there “perilous.” In a White House address before an audience of troops and diplomats heading for Afghanistan, Obama unequivocally defined the goal of the U.S. as “to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan and prevent their return to either country in the future.” Warning that the terrorist group was still planning attacks on the U.S. from a haven situated along the border between the two countries, President Obama announced that 4,000 more troops will be sent to Afghanistan in addition to the long-proposed 17,000 troop surge. Their stated objective will be to train and double the size of the Afghan police and army forces. Obama’s speech switching the military focus away from Iraq to Afghanistan prompted numerous and immediate responses. Amid allegations of corruption in his government, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Obama’s strategy “will bring Afghanistan and the international community closer to success.” Not everyone has such optimism, however. Former Democratic Congressman Tom Andrews now National Director of Win Without War, stated that the new course for the U.S. in Afghanistan “takes a significant step toward a perilous quagmire.”

GUESTS: David Harris, former editor at the New York Times Magazine and Rolling Stone, author of severl books including “The Crisis: The President, the Prophet and the Shah — 1979 and the Coming of Militant Islam.” Robert Greenwald, documentary producer, director and founder of Brave New Films

Learn more at www.rethinkafghanistan.com.