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President Obama addressed the nation last night in a major speech explaining his policy on the Afghanistan war. As expected he laid out his case for 30,000 additional troops to the 68,000 already in Afghanistan, but also laid out a plan to withdraw troops within 18 months. Following his strong words for the corrupt Afghan government, and a pledge to bolster Pakistan’s fight against terrorism, Obama attempted to take on criticism that the Afghan war was like the Vietnam war. He also attempted to set the US apart from past empires by claiming that our wars were not occupations, or fights over resources. In response to the policy announcement, antiwar activists are gearing up for a major push back against the war. But Obama’s position should come as no surprise given that he ran his Presidential campaign foreign policy platform on drawing down the Iraq war and escalating the Afghan war. During a presidential debate with Senator John McCain in September 2008, then Senator Obama said this:

GUESTS: Phyllis Bennis is the Director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, and co-author of the upcoming book, Ending the Us War in Afghanistan: A Primer,” Robert Naiman is Policy Director and National Coordinator at Just Foreign Policy

There will be a major demonstration against the war in Afghanistan on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 5pm at the Westwood Federal Building, 11000 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.