Why Americans are confused

If anything the White House has many of us if not confused at least asking ourselves if we have understood clearly what we have heard or read about the speeches or communiqués of the Obama administration. I would not even think of writing about the health care reform or bills about it being debated. One day there is talk about public option, the next it seems not to be included, then there cuts for this or that or some senators agree with something and the next time they don’t. Really looking from the outside that is the way it seems. And when people from other countries ask about it, well it is better not to get into explanations and it is hard being Americans when we cannot explain what is going on.
Then there is the Copenhagen conference. A few weeks back it was not a sure thing that President Obama would attend due to his waiting for the cap-and-trade bills to be approve by the Senate but as that will not happen if at all until the coming spring and with his upcoming trip to Oslo to get the Nobel Peace Prize, the administration probably thought it wiser for Obama to put an appearance at the beginning of the summit. Pressure from many leaders has made it once more to change the date and now Obama will be at Copenhagen at the end of the conference on Dec. 18 when most of the leaders will be there,
And finally we came to the Afghanistan decision. After waiting for about three months, President Obama let Americans know that he was sending 30,000 troops more to Afghanistan. In the same speech he also inserted a withdrawal date: July 2011. And that was when the confusion began. He was not really very clear about what exactly that date meant. Some wanted to believe the troops would leave Afghanistan then and so the surge of the extra thousands of troops was made more palatable. But then under the barrage of criticism of Republicans and also some Democrats, things began to ‘change’. That is to say that answering questions about the troops withdrawal Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said some days later “some handful, or some small number, or whatever the conditions permit, will begin to withdraw at that time.” And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: “We’re not talking about an exit strategy or a drop dead deadline. What we’re talking about is an assessment that in 2011, we can begin a transition. A transition to hand off — responsibility to the Afghan forces.” But..hold on, wasn’t not Press Secretary Robert Gibbs that after consulting with the president days before the comments made by Clinton and Gates described July 2011 as a “locked in,” inflexible date, when troops will start coming home? Somebody is contradicting somebody or now we are all totally confused.