I’ve been saying it for months.
Afghanistan will be a political disaster for President Obama.
His indecision has dug for him a hole in which he can’t escape.
Need proof? Look at left wingnut Michael Moore’s “open letter to the President”:
…[tonight] you will do the worst possible thing you could do — destroy the hopes and dreams so many millions have placed in you. With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics. You will teach them what they’ve always heard is true — that all politicians are alike. I simply can’t believe you’re about to do what they say you are going to do. Please say it isn’t so.
Emote much, ya whiny schmuck? Yeesh.
Think this letter would have come no matter what the President decided and no matter how long he waited? Nope. In the spring when Obama first increased the number of personnel in Afghanistan, there was no such outcry from the far left.
But now, after the increased focus that indecision brings, he’s getting it in spades.
According to Tom Ricks, a strong proponent of counterinsurgency doctrine and author of Fiasco and The Gamble, it could be the difference between one and two terms for President Obama.
“If Obama uses the phrase ‘exit strategy,’ or dwells on the subject, then you’ll know you’re probably looking at a one-term president. In other words, file under ‘Jimmy Carter,’ not ‘Abe Lincoln.'”
So Obama should avoid implementing a timetable for an exit strategy? Where have I heard that recently?
It’s time to say, “Enough.” It’s time to employ more than military and mercantile strategies in Afghanistan and set a timetable to bring our troops home from Afghanistan.
Ah, that’s right. It was Jennifer Brunner in the Huffington Post.
She also had this doozy:
I doubt that General Stanley McChrystal is the leader whose advice we should follow without significant validation of his recommendations. Gen. McChrystal recommended the deployment of additional troops in a “surge” modeled after the one in Iraq.
Right, that Iraqi surge really messed things up, eh?
So, there ya have it. Obama is getting it from the left, the right, and the left again.
In other words – what a mess!
No matter what your thoughts are on the implementation of McChrystal’s plan, I think it’s hard to say anything less than a massive and swift turnaround in Afghanistan will help Obama politically. And strategically speaking, any pushing for ‘off-ramps’ or timetables will make the mission that much more difficult.