Oh Afghanistan
Posted December 1, 2009 on 11:06 pm | In the category Afghanistan, McCain, Press | by JeffA. J. Liebling wrote about Afghanistan as the place the press wrote about when they had space to fill, no news to fill it, and a subject to write about that absolutely no one gave a shit about. So again time changes and we not so suddenly have to worry about Afghanistan, a place few of us has visited and even fewer of us really wish to visit.
President Obama has now presented his plan for our continued involvement in that country and it was a pretty slick presentation. The press is beating its collective something or other about it but basically he said it is over. We will send 30,000 troops there to fill in for the Bush-Cheney failure and then start to get all of them out of what has turned out to be a monster mess. The focus of the press after the speech has been on the selling of whatever he is doing to all the political players. John McCain, a man wrong about every major issue he has discussed is uneasy – that is a good sign for the Obama decision. Some Republicans think he should never had indicated we might actually be smart enough to leave in good time – I guess better to believe we are a bunch of morons.
But it was a refreshing speech that did not talk down to us, did not bullshit us through false patriotism from neocon chicken hawks and – for a change – did not lie to us about our safety and the strength of our enemies. The battle against terrorists remains in play but there is new evidence that we have leadership that is smart, sophisticated and unwilling to pander to the underbelly of American society.
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Obama gives a good speech – no question – and it is a relief [and a welcome, a very welcome, change] to have a president with the apparent skills up to the task. But the decision Obama has made on Afghanistan assumes that, within a two-year period, 30,000 more troops will be enough to obliterate Al Qaeda and put the Taliban back into the box. Then we leave, right? If the situation were to worsen over the next two years, will Obama add still more troops or will he decide the game is over and pull the troops out? If it’s possible for him to decide that the game is over, what does that say about the argument he made last night that our national security requires the addition of troops and the successful resolution of the problems in Afghanistan [and Pakistan]? If 30,000 more troops is the right answer, then they will all come home after building up the Afghanistan government. But if 30,000 more troops is not the right answer, Obama [and we] are in trouble.
Comment by John — December 2, 2009 #
i actually think he kicked the can down the road largely in response to domestic political realites. As it is he is crapped on today by the McCainiacs for telling the world that we are getting out and by the moveoniacs who want to pull out at once. I don’t think a longer stay is viable politically or economically and if McCain and his pals think anyone out there does not understand that they are even stupider than i think. and that is pretty stupid. In any case, a longer stay would probably just stick us the way ten years of involvement stuck the Russians. I would have liked to hear him talk more about Pakistan and its nuclear arsenal in relation to his strategy and I break my rule of “never assume” by assuming that he is actually constructing a strategy around the needs of Pakistan rather than Afghanistan. As for the terrorists – they are going to be with us for a very long time no matter what we do and the effort to control and confront them will continue by ways both open and covert. So, John raises serious questions that will be answered in due time – by events and domestic politics. Probably we are already in trouble….
Comment by Jeff — December 2, 2009 #
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