Posted on 12/10/2009 7:16:07 AM PST by seanmerc
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama had a golden opportunity to become a peacemaker compared to his hawkish predecessor. But he has let that opening evaporate by escalating the war in Afghanistan.
Now he is called a "war president" -- a dubious title that former President George W. Bush personally embraced after starting two devastating wars, one in Afghanistan, the other in Iraq.
In both cases, the U.S. is touting its exit plans. In Iraq, Obama has declared a victory and plans to pull out many troops next year, though leaving thousands behind to secure the Baghdad government. In Afghanistan, Obama has spoken vaguely about a troop drawdown starting in July 2011.
The problem in Iraq is that the sectarian war we nurtured in that oil-rich country -- and invaded on the basis of false intelligence -- is far from over, as evidenced by the suicide bombings in Baghdad this week that took 127 lives and wounded hundreds of Iraqis.
Obama went into Hamlet mode in his prolonged deliberation about Afghanistan before deciding to send 30,000 more troops there in pursuit of Taliban forces and the al Qaida network.
The president was accused of "dithering" by militant Republican lawmakers, most of whom have never known war. Later, he was pilloried for announcing a July 2011 date to begin an Afghanistan exodus.
It must have been tough for the president to prepare a persuasive speech in accepting the Nobel peace prize on Thursday while escalating a war in Central Asia.
Obama’s troop buildup is in line with his campaign promise that Afghanistan was a war of necessity -- as opposed to Iraq -- and that he would target Afghanistan if he became president.
Still, he had a chance to reconsider and begin a withdrawal to save lives.
Considering the domestic problems on his plate, he should have followed the footprints of the Russians, who gave up after some 10 years of warfare in that rugged terrain. In earlier times, both the British and Alexander the Great finally left Afghanistan to the warlike Afghans.
There is a precedent for strategic withdrawal. President Dwight D. Eisenhower --a top commander in World War II ----withdrew most U.S. troops from Korea and settled for an armistice with Pyongyang.
As for interventions in civil wars, a Bill Mauldin cartoon said it all. He showed two muddied GI’s lifting their heads out of a trench and one asks the other: "How can you tell a North Korean from a South Korean?"
No one called Ike a coward when he compromised. Likewise, Americans heaved a sigh of relief when President Ronald Reagan "redeployed" U.S. Marines out of Lebanon in 1983.
Obama should remember his own battle cry and tell the hawks: "Yes, we can."
The U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry -- formerly the top military commander in that tribal country -- had warned against a troop escalation in secret cables he sent to the State Department.
But in testimony this week on Capitol Hill, Eikenberry -- like a good soldier -- came on board with Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who had requested 40,000 more American troops. NATO allies have promised to dispatch several thousands more troops, bringing the total number to 100,000 under U.S. command.
Eikenberry said the goal is to stabilize Afghanistan and ensure that al Qaida and other terrorist groups cannot regain a foothold there to plan new attacks against the U.S. and its allies.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Gen. David Petraeus -- who heads U.S. Central Command -- insisted that parallels between Iraq and Afghanistan or Vietnam are "highly misleading."
"Afghanistan is not Iraq," or other countries, he said. "It is Afghanistan with its own list of challenges and difficulties."
The difference, he explained, is the low literacy rate in Afghanistan and its shaky central government.
Sorry, general. To me it looks like the same old Vietnam quagmire.
In the vernacular, Obama should know the often repeated phrase: "The way forward" means "out."
Has Helen had a recent face lift or something? She has improved her looks to resemble the wicked witch of the west.
On another completely superfluous note; it must really be hell to be as ugly as she is for as long as she has!
...and in dire need of one of MO’s boob belts.
Somebody should check Helens house for Osama bin Laden.
... or a complex system of cables and pulleys.
What better way for him to quiet his critics, establish his legitimacy to hold the office for which he is not constitutionally qualified, and to emulate FDR?
Today at the Nobel PEACE Prize ceremony, he gave the "toughest" most bellicose speech of his career. Reagan or Bush could have written parts of it.
If this SOB thinks a war is necessary to consolidate his power, why then war we shall have! Perhaps it's his way of throwing the Left Under The Bus to make it all his show.
My monitor just shattered.
We’re receiving similar reports from all over the place.
Or Barney Feife as a G-man.....
Nice picture of Zeros secret weapon, he will make her get naked in front of Muslims, not only does their religion force them to kill themselves, they will do it just to get the image out of their minds.....
Sincere apologies to all of the Margaret Hamilton fans. And, I certainly do not want to offend any of the Lassie fans so I guess I will just shut up.
Helen seemed to love JFK, and he was no shirker of war.
I can’t understand these types. Do they think people should just lay down and die, and that talk solves everything?
Rush called this last year. He said Obama is giving all this antiwar garbage, but when he gets in, he’ll find he can’t leave. We are in there for a reason. Even Code Pink went over to talk to people, and found they don’t want us out.
If the Nobel Peace Prize truly went to the right person, Bush should get it for freeing the women of Afghanistan.
does that mean that helen isn’t thankful for a BLACK President anymore?
;-). Lassie would never show her face in public again. They broke the mold when they made Helen. I’ve never seen anyone with whom I could compare her. ;-)
so was it her who played the human-fly hybrid in the 1986 movie version of the fly and not jeff goldblum?
CLASSIC! Mind if I steal it?
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