McCarthy on Obama’s war policy: Alinsky does Afghanistan
I agree with Andrew McCarthy’s dire assessment of Obama’s cynical Afghanistan policy, except for one thing: I don’t think it’s fooling either side, right or left.
Come to think of it, maybe that’s two things.
So now what do we do?
In principle I support the Afghanistan War. I agree that it is a “war of necessity.” I want to go along with the editors of National Review and other conservative leaders who say we must give Obama a chance on this.
But given Obama’s record of incompetence, his lack of military knowledge, his dithering for eight months about a war that he is only willing to support for 18 months, his insistence on second-guessing his tried-and-true generals, his catering to his fickle anti-war Democratic base, and his weak, contradictory “We are resolved to fight this war except that it is kinda expensive and I would rather be doing other things” presentation, I have to say that I come down on pulling our soldiers out now, rather than sacrificing their lives in a holding action for Obama’s CYA purposes then pulling them out later.
I am so disgusted.
Great article.
Most of the conservative sources I read and listen to aren’t fooled one bit, though. And I have the default assumption that Obama is lying until he proves otherwise. So far he’s never disappointed me.
But I was listening to Bill Bennett while driving to work the morning after Obama’s speech, and I damn near ripped the radio out of the dashboard. What a frickin’ tool. Bennett is an intelligent and educated man, but sometimes he’s almost like a male version of Peggy Noonan.
rickl, you got that right about Bill Bennett. He keeps on trying to be “civilized” in his critique of Obama. I”M FREAKIN’ SICK OF IT. If this guy (Obama) hasn’t proven to you yet his dispicable intentions, you’re a fool.
He and Newt both want to work with Obama on Education related things, Jeez, it should be obvious you can’t trust him at this point.
huxley, I’m with you. Cutting and running now is better for U.S. national interests than cutting and running 18 months from now. I hate to say it. But there is no way Obama is adding to our forces with an intent to win. This is all political pantomime that is going to waste time and money and get armed services personnel and Afghani civilians killed without having a material effect on the ultimate outcome in Afghanistan. Score me as one who doesn’t have a lot of confidence in 3/4 of a Surge.
I think the Republicans in Congress should refuse to support Obama’s move to send the 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. They won’t, of course. They still think they should be looking for ways to support and work with Obama. They’ll go all slobbery and sentimental over being able to go along with him on this, pat themselves on the back for their grand bipartisan show. They should be using it as a way to leverage some major changes to the Democrats’ domestic machinations. This is another grand seduction, and the Republicans fall for it every time. You’d think they’d get sick of being kicked, and then used, and then kicked again, as surely as the night follows the day. They should recognize this as the political gift it is–Obama needs their support. Why don’t they learn to play even the pitiful cards they have? Why don’t they try to extract something from him in return? They are simply incapable of learning from experience.
It’s making me gag.
I have pretty much had it with Afghan tribalism, and with ‘ungovernable’ North Waziristan. Maybe we should just annually napalm the poppy fields. Obama’s half-assed pseudowar just isn’t worth our warriors dying for.
Geopolitically we have the ME footprint needed-Iraq. If Obama will let us keep it.
As to the GOP, betsyb, you can bet that no one, none, of the sorry lot running the show have read Alinsky. It’s just business as usual; they’re OK with being the Permanent Minority, as long as they get the same perks.
Both Secretary of Defense Gates and General James Jones from the NSC have been trying to assure reporters that the 18 month date did NOT mean we were pulling our troops out then, but that’s when we expected to turn control of operations over to the Afghan Government.
We would begin bringing some troops home, but the date was meant to put pressure on Hamid Karzai and his govt. Is this backtracking in the face of so much opposition here at home? Backside covering? It’s hard to tell. Obama seems to have little concern for the accuracy of his speeches, yet our allies hear his speeches as statements about American will and trustworthiness.
Having the border areas full of ambitious terrorists next to an unreliable nation with nukes is also unacceptable.
TEC,
Well I’d call it unacceptable as well, but it looks like we’re accepting it. We accept a lot of things these days right after calling them unacceptable. Iran nukes, anyone? And that’s only one. Unacceptable, huh? Well I try to remember that words have meanings, but the thing is the meanings often aren’t what they used to be; they’re fungible.
And word meanings aren’t the only things that aren’t what they used to be. The word of the United States of America used to worth something, too. These days it’s pretty cheap.
For Republicans, voting for funding the war in Afghanistan that is being managed by the Democrats is as distasteful as voting for McCain. There is no good choice and the likelihood is that disaster will follow.
My view is that we brought the war to Afghanistan and we have an obligation to its people to hang around long enough to give them the time (and the resources) to stand on their own two feet.
Our current occupant of the White House leaves the impression that he will not support the war unless the Afghanis clean up the corruption in their government. He asks more of them, in terms of purity, than us, as he would saddle our democracy with the likes of ACORN which he himself assisted in subverting our democracy. The mystery is how he can impose such puritanical ideals on Afghanistan while tolerating such a corrupt and incompetent government here at home.
Do as I say, not as I do.
C’mon folks! How ’bout some optimism here! With a little luck, in 18 months the Copperheads will have lost their majorities in Congress and Barry will be on his way to following in the footsteps of his great friend Jimmy Carter. A year and a half after that, maybe we can elect a real President, who actually understands what a war is.