Washington (CNN) – Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday the American public is "a bit weary" about the war in Afghanistan, but warned President Obama against any "precipitous withdrawal" of U.S. forces saying that the country has invested too much at this point.
"Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle reflect the opinions of attitudes of their constituents, and the American people are a bit weary about Afghanistan and you can't blame them," Boehner told reporters Wednesday.
Boehner said the mission in Afghanistan to prevent al Qaeda a safe haven for planning attacks against the U.S is important to continue. "We've got an awful lot invested here. I'm concerned about any precipitous withdrawal of our troops that would jeopardize the success that we've made."
President Obama will unveil his plan for Afghanistan in a primetime address Wednesday, and Boehner noted he doesn't have all the details of the announcement, but said, "If the President listens to the commanders on the ground and our diplomats in the region and makes a decision, I'll be there to support him."
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If Obama said he had no intention of withdrawing, Boehner would attacking him for being a war monger. No matter what the president decides, Boehner will be against it. And probably crying about it.
Can somebody tell me exactly what we are investing IN with Afghanistan? Maybe Opium, Carpets, or just what is it that is costing us Tri-Quad Billions of Dollars plus military lives and commitment. Congress, you need to get your heads back on without the 60's and 70's air in the heads and start making decisions for this country instead of all of those other useless third world countries that will stab us in our backs.
That's kind of disingenuous isn't it? Demand withdrawal of troops but warn him not to withdraw troops? Can the Republicans get any more schizophrenic?
Typical GOP. They want to continue to have multiple wars going on. It was Dubya who started them. By the time the next GOP gets elected president in almost 6 years [!!!] the US will still be there.
Of course watch Boehner say during the next election that the Obama administration did not try to reduce the number of troops.
It seems that Boehner is setting this up to hate whichever way it goes... Outragous
The USA will be stuck in Afghan and Iraq and perhaps Libya till hells freezes over if the GOP win the White House and the senate and congress. The GOP will cut like crazy to have more money for the GOP vanity wars.
So the USA is doomed with a GOP win as GOP will not create many jobs and steal from the poor to give to the rich and keep the USA in a expensive wars that the USA can no longer really afford all because of GOP pride and wackiness.
I am going to vote for Obama even though I wish the Democrats would run Hillary instead of Obama .
It is time to stop the crusade and bring the troop home. We can't do anything about our dead soldiers but we should not let anybody else die there. The war was misdirected. 9-11 was a Saudi attack by 18 Saudi citizens financed by Saudi money. The Saudis are still finacing terrorist avtivities. Let's clean them out.
Boehner talking out of both sides of his mouth, similar to running on job creation then creating zero jobs.Far too much golfing and tanning and obviously has sunburn of the brain cell
Boehner seems OK with wasting billions of dallars overseas, yet not spending anything on domestic issues.
Republicans. Who the heck are these guys? Can they come up with any statement that doesn't contradict themselves?
If they can't say anything in unison except "NO" to anything the President proposes, then they aren't really governing, are they?
Oh, and "where are the jobs?"
Obama isn't going to pull a huge number out at once. I think that because he doesn't want to have to put them back into Afghanistan.
His lips move and sound comes out . . . but there is no content, no meaning, no understanding, no strategy . . . just noise.
I know of "white noise", I guess this is "orange noise". POINTLESS !
It doesn't matter what Obama does the GOP will complain. The GOP initially complained that he wasn't doing anything in Libya and then when he did now they are complaining that he started another war without permission. Its not a War but a UN back resolution to remove a dictator who was ACTUALLY killing his own people when the UN decision was made to do something about it. Oh yea the GOP even complained when Obama turned the Libya conflict over to the UN so they could be responsible. The GOP had their chances to set policy in Afghanistan during the Bush Administration. What did they do they could find Osama Biden Laden and decided to attack a country that had nothing to do with the reason we are in Afghanistan to begin with. Bush had no plan to get out so now the GOP wants to tell the Obama administration what to do. Does the GOP have any shame? How about they just shut up and let Obama clean up their mess again.
GOP/Tea Party politics as usual is very confusing. A mixed message of take more of the troop out quickly or do not take out the troops precipitously. Which one is it? What has happened to the GOP/Tea party image of waving the flag, support the troops, and fight evil dictators? Oh yes, forgot, there is a presidential campaign coming up.
"Precipitous withdrawal"
We spend nearly $ 40 billion to train nearly 300 000 Afghan troops for what ?
We should just pull all our troops out because no one can bring this Flintsones of a country into the 21st Century! Put up a defense shield around the country with missles in Iraq and Pakinstan and tell who ever will be running this godforsaken cavemansland that if we get hit again we will nuke their opium ridden worthless corner off this planet.
Ok, so bonehead has created still no jobs, Obama is trying to bring home some but not all the troops, I get it, but if he brang them all home all 70,000 @ one time? Would that be a smart thing for him to do? I personally don't think so. But correct me if I am wrong, I would like to see why?
I guess it all comes down to how much he has invested in Haliburton and other companies that have contracts with the military!
He certainly had no issues with remaining in Iraq!
OK, there is a serious flaw in what Bonehead and his cronies keep saying: if he listens to the comanders and generals on the ground. NO!! POTUS is the CIC and they listen to him. Of course the President makes his decisions based on the intel and advice given to him, but no, he doesn't need to listen. It may be a stretch, but it's just another example of Republicans having utter disrespect for the POTUS, namely, the black guy who's not one of them.
Aaaah, was expecting this. Huntsman is out there saying we should withdraw MORE troops MORE quickly than Obama plans and I'm sure the other GOP candidates will take a similar tack based on the polls, so I was wondering when we'd get the opposite from one of the already-elected GOPers. They think they can turn every single thing Obama does into a catch-22...a situation in which no matter what he does or has done, it was wrong.
Besides, Afghanistan is still smoethign the GOP hopes to take credit for...no matter how much they rtied to call it "Obama's war" once it started becoming unpopular. If the US and the international community decide when it's over that Afghanistan was a success, the GOP will be trying to claim the credit for it per Bush...just like they tried to do when Obama finally nailed bin Laden. But hey, when it comes to Libya, and a situation that is very much expected to end with the successful removal of Ghadaffi and the formation of a new government for the Libyan people...something Obama did pretty much unilaterally and wil get to claim all credit for if it succeeds (which is expected), they can't wait to try to screw it up.
Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!
i thought that was the focus, Boehner?? but we understand that you need as many Americans out of work as possible in 2012, so you can get your privately funded guys in the white house to push their radical conservative agenda!
you never intended to focus on jobs or the economy, you sitting on your hands so you can try to blame Obama for the economy, too bad some of America is smarter than that!
this economy is on you and the GOP that America mandated!
In other words... Hold up playa .. i have a lot of money tied up in investments over there.. you cant just bring the troops home now ... LoL.. these guys crack me up .. He got the #1 & #2 and other key players. I say bring them home and something else jumps off then send a small force over there to deal with it.. dont need 100K troops over there.. but the repubs and others are making so much money behind these wars and dont 4get.. there main goal is to make sure Obama is a 1 term prez. which should tell the american people that they dont plan on helping Obama help america. thats truly the sad part. but they will just say he has failed or bad policies. when really they are just watching Obama push a broken down with 4 flats on a SUV up a steep hill.. while on the side line telling him and the crowd(america) what he should be doing to get the SUV up the hill ..
Precipitous.
Ha, that's funny. Our President is nothing if not deliberate in his actions, and thoughtful in his speech.
He knows nothing about your 'shootin' from the hip' Quick Draw McGraw because he believes in THINKING things through before adopting a plan of action.
Unlike you-know-who.
Obama has these Republicans in a nice little box and they're going crazy with themselves trying to figure out how to get out of that box. They want to get out of Libya yet stay in Afghanistan. They don't know what to do with themselves. I saw this coming from the minute they started saying they'll pass resolutions to end Libya and I said how they will square that with their vote with Afghanistan.
I like this guy much more as the Speaker, than as the minority leader. He pushes the party's agenda, which is his job, but he also knows when to deal and when to call it like it is. The job of statesmen, after all is to find the common ground as you push to make the case that the "compromises" that are best for the country are closer to your position than the other guy's. By contrast the only outcome that politicians care about is winning elections, as though the were an end in themselves.