What’s holding Obama up on this Afghanistan decision? I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for the past few MONTHS but this is getting ridiculous. I’m starting to think this big long stall is just a process of appeasing his base. He wants the eventual decision to send more troops to seem extra double well thought out, as though he agonized and studied every other possibility. And he trapped himself during the campaign by demonizing Mc Cain’s support of Iraq and calling Afghanistan the “good war” – before the surge cleared up Iraq and before Afghanistan fell apart.
We’ll see. If he only sends part of the troops his Generals require to implement the strategy Obama set out so long ago – that means this has been a political stall tactic. If he does actually send what the Generals require – then I’ll believe he’s actually been mulling, but it will be a tough sell still.
If he was actually committed to a strategy for victory he could have (would have) had troops moving this whole time. It takes a while after the decision is made you know. Hell, if he was really interested in this strategy he’d have some significant increases over there by now – before winter – and the new units could be spending Christmas and New Year training their Afghan sister unit not to wear pink shirts on patrol and remember to take their rifle and ammo when they go outside. All this dicking around has cost us a whole year. And if you’re concerned about cost and loss, a year is a long damn time to maintain an outdated strategy / troop count.
If he decides to abandon his strategy and not send any more troops – that will mean the only logical new strategy 
would be drawdown to a small anti-terror force. In that case, I’d call this big stall an attempt at ass-covering to avoid seeming soft on national defense.
And BTW – is anyone else becoming averse to Obama’s speeches? I used to make sure I caught each and every one. But he’s made so many! So many addresses and speeches everywhere he goes. He says so much without really saying anything. I first noticed it when he was addressing New Orleans. It was his normal inspiring long winded poetry. I noticed it wasn’t affecting me emotionally like it used to because I could see the list of promises and ideas floating out of his skilled mouth and falling into the rotting Obama promises pile. I started to get angry. I though, “Those broke-ass Katrina victims don’t need his damn we’ll-fix-it poetry!” It’s like listening to a motivational speaker. I change the channel when his speeches come up now… I’ll catch the summary later – if even that matters. Pelosi and Reid are running things anyway. His poetry sessions and the legislation congress is wrestling with are two different turkeys.
Loading ...
Raging Kitty