President Obama on Afghanistan. Huh?
Posted on 02. Dec, 2009 by scott in Social commentary, political munglings
I am sure most of us were waiting with bated breath for President Obama to reveal his new strategy on the war against terrorism in its Afghanistan spectre yesterday. What a disappointment.
Attendance was mandatory at West Point (he is the Commander-in-Chief afterall) and still the reception there was muted at worst and respectful at best.
What up dude? Why did this strategy take more than 3 months to formulate?
What’cha got?
Adding more troops as General McChrystal (the commander in the field) had requested, though not as many as the good General had hoped for. A plea for help from our allies (who are they any way?). And the incredibly naive promise of beginning withdrawal by the summer of 2011.
Hello! That wasn’t a strategy, it was an admission of failure to date and an unequivocal assurance to the Afghan people that America is tired of this war and will try a bit more but not too much before leaving with our tails between our legs.
Yechh!
I am flat out disappointed.
You should be too.
Why is it that our political leaders never seem to reflect the views of our military leaders (which they always seem to seek). The military types are professionals, the political types are glad handers. It should not be too difficult to recognize that professionals have a broader and better perspective on any issue than part-time thinkers (congress–you pick the subject).
You can’t run a war on a schedule and President Obama should know that despite his lack of real experience. Putting an end date on a war that has lasted 8 years while Americans died (a century or more if you want to count the Russians and British) is downright folly.
With all the hype leading up to the speech at West Point yesterday we should have been given more. How in the world do the democrats put a positive spin on this mess?
President Obama was perfectly clear vague on the details and preciously void of any understanding of what is happening in Afghanistan relative to the Taliban and Al Queda. Where has he been for the last 8 years? Doesn’t give me any confidence and it sure can’t be very promising to our men and women-at-arms.
If you want my prior views (unchanged to date) on the Afghan war go back to here.
My worst fears at the election of Barrack are being realized and I don’t see any turn for the better in the near term.
Hew as a great campaigner and does really well reading off scripts from the teleprompters . . . but what happened to the great ‘mind’ the democrats and broad minded independents were voting for? To the Nobel Peace Prize winner who ‘earned’ the medal before doing anything to merit it?
91 days to come up with this plan?
If our President doesn’t understand the issues in this war then how is he going to get our allies (again who are they?) to step up more than they have in the last 8 years.
Here is what I see with the plan as it now stands: 30,000 more Americans will show up (but with uncertain directions), $30 billion more will be spent next year on this ‘war’, a few (compared to our 100,000) troops from other lands will arrive to direct traffic (but not fight), the Taliban and Al Queda forces will rally their own troops (knowing they only have 18 months left to kill infidels with hidden bombs and suicide idiots), and then . . . America will withdraw like we are doing in Iraq and declare that the local government is going to be in charge from now on because we trained them so they can . . .
End of story.
The political bottom line: President Obama is NOT proving possession of great intellectual capacity, is proving to be indecisive, continues his efforts to change perceptions of America in the rest of the World (with a hopelessly inept diplomatic approach — Iran, North Korea, Russia, China, Iraq, Afghanistan, Venezuela, California . . . ) at a cost to be determined later, watches as unemployment keeps on climbing, AND . . . proves why his popularity diminishes further.
Oh, what great hopes I had. At least President Bush (the worst President in my memory), didn’t care about celebrity. He always (when not on vacation) seemed focused on the job.
Come on President Obama, you still have 3 years left to show us what you got. The first year is a dismal failure in my estimate but hope reigns eternal! I don’t know who I am more disappointed in — Tiger Woods or Barrack Obama.
Forget the celebrity, stop needless travel (foreign leaders can come here for crying out loud!), start focusing on the real problems and pay attention to the ‘experts’ you hired!!
thanks to isafmedia at flickr for the photo
Honors and Recognitions
This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.