Greetings from Berlin where I’m having a very productive set of meetings organized by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Way busy today — much to post on at a later time, but the big news now is that in a few hours President Barack Obama will be outlining his revised Afghanistan policy at West Point.
Representative Jane Harman has issued her thoughts and while she praises the President for trying to deal with the corruption challenge and for outlining clearer goals for US forces in Afghanistan, she strongly underscores concerns about enlarging the US military footprint there.
She writes:
I do not agree that inserting 34,000 additional U.S. and 5,000-10,000 additional ISAF troops into southern and eastern Afghanistan will enhance the chance of success. Just the opposite. Expanding our military footprint in Afghanistan is a mistake.
I will be on SIRIUS and XM Radio’s “Stand Up! with Pete Dominick” at 5 pm EST and 11 pm Berlin time talking about Afghanistan today.
Then at 6:15 pm EST and 12:15 am (Wednesday) Berlin time, I’ll be chatting about Australia Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s quick trip to Washington this week as well as climate change politics and Obama’s Afghanistan moves on “Mornings with Deborah Cameron” on ABC Sydney 702 radio. Not sure what time this works out to be down under.
At 8:00 pm EST and 2:00 am in Berlin, I’ll be watching the Obama speech and twittering and chatting on line live with WNYC’s Brian Lehrer.
Shortly after the speech — not sure of the time — I will be chatting with Larisa Epatko of the Online News Hour. Again, topic will be Afghanistan. That exchange should be posted on the News Hour‘s web page.
Then, perhaps finally for the night, I’ll be discussing Afghanistan and Pakistan with Keith Olbermann on Countdown at 9:50 pm EST or 3:50 am in Berlin. And I won’t look tired.
Hope some of you can tune in.
— Steve Clemons
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