Last night at West Point, President Obama had a golden opportunity to demonstrate that the world’s only superpower is lead by a tough, determined, world leader, able to make difficult decisions. Instead, President Obama chose to take a hedged, triangulated position between those in America that support the war in Afghanistan and those that oppose it. There was more nuance in the President’s address than there was determination and resolve, which is unfortunate for America and for international security around the globe.
There really are no good options for America and the situation in Afghanistan. Looking backwards into the rearview mirror does us no good; we are where we are and fair or not, the President is forced to look ahead and play the hand he has been dealt. As evidenced by the delay and lengthy deliberation regarding additional troop commitments, President Obama is learning that it is more difficult to actually lead a nation than it is to merely campaign to lead a nation.
Whether the best course of action is committing more troops or withdrawing could be debated by reasonable people, but it is less important than commitment and dedication to one or the other, with resolve. The President needed to get it right last night—either we’re all-in or we’re out—and he failed, choosing conditional commitment and putting his weakness and equivocation on full display for the world.
Rather than attempting to placate his left flank by holding back 25% of the 40,000 troops requested by General McChrystal, the President could have demonstrated he was in it to win it, giving the general the 40,000 troops he requested. Why hold back 10,000 troops? If ever an ounce of prevention were better than a pound of cure, this would be it—give the general what he is requesting and “get ‘er done.” The left is not placated by his gesture to send 30,000 more troops and hold back 10,000, and history informs us well that underwhelming the enemy or relying on the pathetic troop commitments of our allies is a recipe for disaster and defeat.
Clearly, the ultimate pusillanimous act last night was announcing a troop draw-down in 18 months. This was not leadership, but a cowardly act that undermined any attempt by the President to even feign commitment, again serving only one purpose, to unsuccessfully attempt to appease the left.
The left and right are not happy with the President, nor is Middle America, which wants us out of Afghanistan, best achieved by either a total commitment to get out or bucking-up and committing overwhelming force. Giving General McChrystal less troops than he requested and announcing a draw-down in 18 months are jellyfish maneuvers, difficult to rationalize other than through a purely political prism. Middle America deserves leadership from President Obama and knows all too well that the only thing in the middle of the road is a dead possum on a dotted white line.
The worse part of all of this is how the Afghani man who is still on-the-fence as to whether he should support Karzai and his American allies by actively rejecting the Taliban and Al Q nexus (maybe even joining the self-defense forces) or lay low and prepare for the inevitable take-back by the extremists, now knows what to do… Lay low.
This whole mission depends of the attitude of our hypothetical man in the RockPile.
Deadlines could have been given, and an argument can be made that they should, but a wise leader would have done it privately. “Wise” being the keyword here.
What we heard was a politician making a political speach, not a leader making a decision that leads to victory.
VICTORY. A word he never used. Too bad he can’t pretend the enemy isn’t FoxNews.
The Afghanis, and the warriors who fight and die are but pawns for his political gamesmanship.
And that is a cardinal sin.
The soldiers in Afghanistan also gave a reaction of mixed feelings, and that’s easy to understand. They have a job to capture Taliban and terrorists, which is a big commitment to this country and Afghanistan. When listening to Obama, one can’t help but feel his all of his “thanks” to the troops are empty, since he sounds like he’s flip flopping between supporting his troops and doing what the people who voted him into office want him to do.
My God, this is what comes from 3 1/2 months of intelligent thought? Go help us if we as a nation are ever faced with an imminent threat. This was his old lawyer trick of presenting both sides of the argument and deciding nothing. This was so blatantly a political speech that I was caught off guard. I had imagined the speech would be one of two like everyone else. Get in and win or get out and quit. This is an example of what happens when you elect a man/woman who has no core values. Everything becomes only a matter of the least desirable choice. People talk about so and so is not qualified to be president. I think the first quality that a future president must have is core values and a belief in what they are doing. Obviously Obama did not want to do what he laid out because he does not believe in it. He had to do it for political reasons. The lives of many young men are now on the line for his timidness and desire to get re-elected. Even his own team thought 18 months was only a guide but today he corrected all of them including General Mchrystal and Hillary by saying that troop withdrawals would begin in July 2011. I realize that there is a lot of political room in that statement but so did all of his team. He could actually bring home one soldier and be complying with his own order. Stay mad people, we need that anger to throw the bums out in 2010!
One hundred days to vote present, accomplishing nothing except to strengthen the resolve of our enemies.
Obama you should do business or get off the toilet, Americans and our allies are tired of the uncommitted and indecisive leadership that urinates on the floor and on the outside of the toilet. You impress no one with that behavior, you are just leaving a mess that someone else is going to clean up after you are gone and hopefully, that will be sooner than later.
What do you expect from guy who can’t make up his mind whether a botched aborted, and a baby alive deserves medical attention. He voted present, disregarding the life of that baby, and rather let it die on a soilet metal table.
Why would you think he cares about the troops whther they live, or die in Afghanistan? As long as he can vote present, and continue to blame his troubles, and mess on President Bush, he will continue to vote present.
Remember, the guy needs to remake America, not fight a war against his muslim brothers, he doen’t believe in, and would rather quit yesterday, then in 2011.
For the first time in my life I am ashamed of my president. We need to impeach this pretender and throw out his thrift store reject dressing wife. Also, all of his czars and his cabinet. None of them could tell the truth if it were required by law. God bless our brave troops, and bring them home safe despite what our pretender in chief wants.
Madalyn
White House insists F-22 be removed from backdrop for speech venue
Guess we should be thankful he didn’t replace it with a MiG.
What conservatives REALLY FEAR from the Obama plan? Not failure, but success:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/12/email-from-kandahar-were-going-to-win-this-one.html
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Text —
I’ve written you a few times. You’ve responded, once. I’m usually not too happy with you.
Anyway, I’m now in Kandahar, working for Stan. That Stan.
I was anti-Iraq. Beginning to now, in the US and in Anbar with a gun in my hand. I was anti-Afghanistan … the Bush/Rummy version, after about week six. So … here’s my tip:
We’re going to win this one. We have a plan. I call it C2. COIN and cordwood.
We’re trying to learn counter insurgency, while at the same time, we’re stacking insurgent (the only accepted term at the moment) bodies like cordwood. They’ve gotten a little bit afraid, and are growing more so every day. The relatively fast 30k is going to relatively quickly change the picture, in noticeable way, in Helmand and Kandahar. We’re booting the Canadians out of command of Kandahar City. Omar’s town. We’re putting a bright, smart, tough, funny Brit 2 star in charge of RC South, where the battle really matters.
Come on out. I’ll show you around. But, please, avenge your Iraq mistakes by backing us when we need you, and other reasonably sane guys with platforms, to help out a little. Obama has taken some huge brave risks; but they’re smart risks, and we’re going to prove him right.
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Andrew Sullivan…
You actually sought him out, came here, and quoted Mr. “milky-loads.”
Un-freakin real.
When the Leaders of the nation and their “ilk” refer to WEST POINT as “enemy territory”….. something is TERRIBLY WRONG!!