THE DEM BACKLASH?
Sunday, November 29, 2009 at 01:10PM I read that Obama's much-vaunted eloquence faces the biggest test of his presidential career this week when he takes to the stage at West Point military academy to explain to a nation that thought it had elected an anti-war president why he is escalating the conflict in Afghanistan.
After almost three months of agonising, nine war councils and endless leaks, the president will finally make his views known on Tuesday when he is expected to announce that he is sending about 30,000 more troops. This will push up American forces to 100,000 and the total number of allied forces to almost 140,000, as many troops as the Soviet Union had in Afghanistan.
The carefully chosen backdrop cannot disguise Obama’s dilemma. Somehow he has to convince his own public that the United States has an exit strategy and will not become bogged down, as it did in Vietnam, while making clear to the Taliban and Pakistan that it has not lost its resolve and will stay as long as it takes.
Obama’s toughest challenge will be to win over his most loyal political supporters. He is facing a growing revolt in the Democratic party over why the US needs to be in Afghanistan at all when the real threat — Al-Qaeda — is in Pakistan, and over the spiralling cost in both lives and dollars.
Well, let's see how The One deals with this. I do not buy into this "exit strategy" guff that the MSM fixates on. I prefer to focus on what constitutes a WINNING strategy. Had Churchill an "exit strategy" during WW2? No. I remind you of what he said back in 1940 and which remains true now. Obama should reflect on this....
"We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, What is our policy? I will say; "It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy." You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory - victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival."
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Reader Comments (8)
"After almost three months of agonising"
3 months??!!? why is timesonline covering for Obama? It' been 11 months - 11 MONTHS! - since Obama took office; the Afghanistan War was there last January.
11 months of Obama's indecision, misdirection, dithering, amateurism... putting soldiers' lives at risk for no reason other than incompetence.
Patty
Obama was expected to change policy the first day?
He received advice from Gen. McChrystal three months ago. That's a long time for this guy to be doing his Hamlet thing. Being president isn't so easy, is it now?
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Response to David
Yes, that is the proper response.
But I bet that even here, there are some who have not heard those words from the man himself, and do not know how grave the threat was, how Britain ( and Europe ) was only a hair from being completely overrun. Conquered. And destroyed.
Leadership counts
There may have been better speeches than this, but I've not heard them. " Shocking in its clarity " indeed.
his only exit strategy is retreat. Not once has he used the word victory. The more this man Presides the more and more obvious it is that he has no clue about what he is doing.
In fairness to the Community Organizer in Chief,
there is the fact that we don't have any really good allies in Afghanistan or in Pakistan. Karzai is a thief and the Pakistan regime is no better.
And we don't have the best of support from most of our NATO allies either
"Not once has he used the word victory."
That's because victory without either a) huge American losses, or b) becoming as evil as the people you are fighting, is impossible. Without systematically going into all the Afghan/Pakistan tribal areas and defeating the Taliban there one by one (which would incur huge American losses) or by wiping out the entire region (which would be a bigger crime than 9/11) the Americans can't win.
Unless there is an explanation for the delay then it is a valid criticism to ask why a decision took so long.
war is war Seamus
I think that was Göring's defence as well. War maybe war but war crimes still exist, Troll.