On Tuesday, President Obama delivered his highly anticipated inaugural address. Many observers noticed and commented on the respectful reference to nonbelievers. But just a few sentences beforehand, Obama referred to the Taliban and al Qaeda. These remarks have not drawn the same level of attention, although I'd argue they are more significant. Let's take a look. Obama said: We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.
He ends this paragraph with a forceful declaration about our collective will to defeat al Qaeda. This is status quo rhetoric. Far more significant, however, is the carefully worded reference to "peace in Afghanistan" which opens the paragraph. One hopes it is not, in fact, "too late" to achieve the Uncoupling. In any case, time will tell. From October 2008: The solution for people who have spent a long time in Afghanistan was ... to work with the Taliban and somehow to uncouple the Afghan fighters from al-Qaeda. Seven years of killing later, it feels a bit too late to try that now. So, western policy seems glued to fighting a war that many people in the know are now saying the west is never going to win.
From October 2008: "You Westerners have your watches," the leader observed. "But we Taliban have time."
From January 2009: We will not be able to eliminate the Taliban from the rural areas of Afghanistan’s south, so we will have to work with Afghans to contain the insurgency instead. All this is unpleasant for Western politicians who dream of solving the fundamental problems and getting out. They will soon be tempted to give up.
Two or Three Things I Noticed About The Speech | 
