Rep. Ed Royce (CA) regularly blogs on RedCounty.com. His latest post focuses on the White House's understanding of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. See the following excerpt:
It has been a frightening few days of headlines coming out of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Making matters worse, if press leaks are true, discussions in President Obama's war room are pie-in-the sky.
Friday's Washington Post - "Emerging Goal for Afghanistan: Weaken, Not Vanquish, Taliban" - reports in part, "[Obama] and his advisers have emphasized during the policy review that the administration views al-Qaeda and the Taliban as philosophically distinct organizations. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday that 'there is clearly a difference between' the Taliban and 'an entity that, through a global, transnational jihadist network, would seek to strike the U.S. homeland.'" The Obama Administration seems to be calculating that since the Taliban doesn't threaten us, don't threaten them, and focus instead on Al Qaeda.