Obama salutes the fallen heroes

Published on Thursday 29 October 2009 21:06

STANDING in the pre-dawn darkness, Barack Obama saw the real cost of the war in Afghanistan: the Americans who return in flag-covered coffins, while much of their nation sleeps in peace.

In a surprise midnight visit to this Delaware base, where US forces killed overseas come home, President Obama honoured the return of 18 fallen Americans. All were killed in Afghanistan this week, a brutal stretch that turned October into the most deadly month for US troops since the war began.

The dramatic image of a president on the tarmac was a portrait not witnessed in years. George W Bush said the appropriate way to show his respect for war's cost was to meet grieving military families in private, as he often did, but he never went to Dover Air Force Base to meet remains coming off the cargo plane.

President Obama did so with the weight of knowing that he may soon send more troops off to war.

For all the talk of his potential troop increase – maybe 40,000, maybe some other large figure – President Obama got a grim reminder of the number that counts: one. His name was Dale R Griffin, an army sergeant from Terre Haute, Indiana. He was the last fallen soldier to come before the president. His remains were the only ones of the 18 to be honoured in full view of the media.

An 18-year ban on such coverage, dating to the 1991 Gulf War and strengthened by Mr Bush, was relaxed this year under Mr Obama's watch, allowing families to decide whether cameras can document the return. Nearly two-thirds have said yes.

After returning to the White House, President Obama said that getting a first-hand look at the sacrifices made by US troops would have a bearing on how he viewed the war in Afghanistan as he crafted a new strategy there.

"It was a sobering reminder of the extraordinary sacrifice (by troops and their families]," he said.

Mr Obama has already upped the US commitment in Afghanistan to 68,000 troops and is considering sending a large new addition.

US officials yesterday suggested the deployment would be fewer than the number requested by the US commander in the field, General Stanley McChrystal. The president holds his next war council meeting with the Joints Chiefs of Staff today.

The stripped-down version of Gen McChrystal's plan would still adopt the overall goals for a counter-insurgency strategy aimed at turning the corner against the Taleban next spring.

But the pared-down approach would reflect a shift in thinking about what parts of the war mission are most important and the intense political domestic debate over Afghan policy.

A majority of Americans either oppose the war or question whether it is worth continuing to wage, according to public opinion polls dating to when Mr Obama shook up the war's management.

Any expansion of the war will displease some Democrats. And if Mr Obama does not meet Gen McChrystal's request, Republicans are likely to accuse him of failing to give his commander all of what he needs.