Patterico's Pontifications

11/18/2009

Afghanistan Decision “Very Close”

Filed under: Obama,War — DRJ @ 5:25 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

President Obama told CNN his decision on Afghanistan was very close:

“U.S. President Barack Obama said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday he is “very close” to a decision on boosting troop levels in Afghanistan and would make an announcement “in the next several weeks.”

It’s been over a year since Obama was elected President following a campaign in which he forcefully spoke about the need to fight the war in Afghanistan. In July 2008, he described the war as precarious and urgent:

“The Afghan government needs to do more. But we have to understand that the situation is precarious and urgent here in Afghanistan. And I believe this has to be our central focus, the central front, on our battle against terrorism,” Obama said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

On the same trip, Obama joined two other Senators in a statement about the importance and urgency of Afghanistan:

“We need a sense of urgency and determination. We need urgency because the threat from the Taliban and al Qaeda is growing and we must act; we need determination because it will take time to prevail. But with the right strategy and the resources to back it up, we will get the job done.”

It’s been almost 3 months since Gen. McChrystal tendered a written report requesting more troops. During that time, Obama has reportedly held at least 8 meetings with his advisers that focused on Afghanistan but the talk of urgency is gone now.

Instead, Obama says he needs more time because he wants to get it right.

President Obama has many responsibilities as President but his foremost duty is to act as Commander-in-Chief of the military and to protect America. Sending men and women into battle is a difficult job and it’s not one to take lightly. But America’s troops are already fighting in Afghanistan so delaying this decision is also a decision. It’s past time for Obama to decide.

— DRJ

23 Responses to “Afghanistan Decision “Very Close””

  1. Hey, Friday evening is coming up…..

    Dr. K (adb7ba)

  2. Oh, and he “gets this right”, it will be a first.

    Then again, a blind squirrel finds a nut now and again.

    Dr. K (adb7ba)

  3. Dr K, if he does get this right, I know that the right, generally, will give him credit for that.

    But yeah, he won’t.

    Dustin (bb61e3)

  4. President Obama has many responsibilities as President but his foremost duty is to act as Commander-in-Chief of the military and to protect America. Sending men and women into battle is a difficult job and it’s not one to take lightly. But America’s troops are already fighting in Afghanistan so delaying this decision is also a decision. It’s past time for Obama to decide.

    Agreed. Especially as any change, up or down, in troop levels is going to take months to implement. Eisenhower procrastinated on selecting Nixon as VP for a number of reasons and as the story goes, Nixon finally confronted Ike and told him to, “S–t or get off the pot.” It’s time for President Obama to come home, park the jet, hit the head and make the hard decisions the go with the office.

    DCSCA (9d1bb3)

  5. I’ll be the first to admit that when the decidion is to send 23,864 or 23,865 more soldiers, it’s really, really tough.

    Or is he personally selecting the names? Or otherwise engineering the diversity factors?

    Dr. K (adb7ba)

  6. “Then again, a blind squirrel finds a nut now and again.”

    no squirrel, sighted, or otherwise, will ever find a nut on the First Gelding. Ear Leader couldn’t produce testosterone if *his* life depended on it, let alone anyone else’s.

    Barry Lackwit will screw this up, as he has everything else since getting into office. hell, if breathing wasn’t autonomic, he’d suffocate debating about when to inhale, and how much.

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  7. “It’s time for President Obama to come home, park the jet, hit the head and make the hard decisions the go with the office.”

    I agree, but I doubt he’ll do that. “The Buck Stops Here” is not the sign you’ll see on his desk anytime soon.

    He’s like the dog taht chased cars and caught one, and now has no idea what to do with it.

    Moreso, he is not used to making any decision that demands him to held to a principle or a position. He’s a panderer of the worst sort.

    I though no one could top Pres. Clinton as worst CinC, but Pres. Obama has no idea about what leadership is, or who he leads. He makes pretty speeches about respect for the military, then absents himself from the role of Commander in Chief, withholding the most important pieces an order he must give to the military; the goal, the commander’s intent, and the resources to meet that goal. His dithering means that no one from general to private can operate on more than a day to day crisis-reaction mode. Without a clear goal, the military can’t execute teh plan to get to that goal.

    I’m so thankful that I retired from the Army before he took over, but I feel for, and fear for, my brothers in arms who must serve under this most indecisive of men.

    Rob (c7293d)

  8. If he actually makes a decision, and I agree Friday will probably be it unless it is next Wednesday, it will be a finesse. I suspect he will send 10,000 troops and promise more. Of course, winter is now in Afghanistan and the fighting slows way down until spring. No hurry now. That was last summer.

    Mike K (2cf494)

  9. “very close” and “in the next several weeks” don’t go together in my book.

    I think it works only if you read it as, “We’re very close to a decision! (in a loud voice), then “in the next several weeks” in a low, muffled voice.

    Perhaps the hope is that the “very close” is what people remember, and they forget to keep count.

    MD in Philly (227f9c)

  10. “Of course, winter is now in Afghanistan and the fighting slows way down until spring. No hurry now.”

    Good point, Mike K. So he has already succeeded in stalling until the decision was a moot point, for now anyway. I wonder if he hopes the world will change by spring and he won’t have to decide anything.

    MD in Philly (227f9c)

  11. The decision is “Very Close.”

    Lets fire the leaker.

    Douglas (2c3ce5)

  12. President Obama is going to surprise everybody. The Right the Left and the Middle. In the first week of December he will speak to the nation and inform us of his Afghanistan plan. First he will fire Ambassador Karl Eikenberry then he will announce that he is sending in 48,000 additional troops into Afghanistan over the next 3 months. He will also state that a major offensive is currently underway and that we are taking back provences currently under Talban control. In addition he will inform America and Europe that 100’s of drone, cruise missiles, and bombers are currently bombing strong hold positions in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Allahu Akbar! Now back to your regularly schedule programming. Hey a person can dream right?

    Sanmon (319c0c)

  13. This is complete and utter BS. The “decision” was made months ago. What is “close” is the redecision, the redither, the reconfusion of a decision that he claimed to have made based on his brilliant attacks on the Bush administration’s policy last year.

    What an Empty Suit(tm).

    SPQR (26be8b)

  14. ooh. I know this one. The little president man is a coward what doesn’t like to take responsibility so it all makes sense if you remember that FY 2010 ends just right at a month before the mid-terms when our little country will have its very first opportunity to kick the dirty socialists squarely in the nuts. The little president man is scared is all. It’s going to be very humiliating. You can tell the little president man’s focus groups are telling him to make defict fighty noises. But when the deficit is reported next September people won’t remember LPM’s noises.

    Slow walking Afghanistan is just an exponent of LPM’s fearful fearful fear I think. Slow walking Afghanistan is the most impacty thing he can do to lower that number next September that won’t piss off his psychotic base of America-hating losers.

    happyfeet (b919e7)

  15. Come on guys, don’t you know it takes a long time for the President to select the troops to go and assign them to companies?

    Kevin Murphy (805c5b)

  16. If he delays long enough, the situation will deteriorate enough so that it will be apparent to everyone that it’s a lost cause, and then he can “regretfully” announce a withdrawal from the war. And, of course, it’ll be Bush’s fault.

    Steven Den Beste (99cfa1)

  17. How many times has The One spoken of ending the war in Afghanistan, and how may times has he spoken of winning it?

    Diffus (8b767b)

  18. How odd that the left kept telling us how Iraq was the reason we weren’t winning in Afghanistan. It’s kinda obvious that wasn’t the issue at all.

    Afghanistan is a very tough place to win a war. It probably isn’t going to make Obama look good to try, so let’s play games, manage press, and leave the troops there to die while we figure out a way to lose with ‘dignity’. Kinda like Vietnam.

    It’s an important place to be, but it would take a truly great leader to figure out how to handle it. Obama has a tremendous advantage over Bush in that the left isn’t trying to kneecap every little aspect of everything, and the GOP would cooperate in this effort. But Obama’s simply not ready to lead on Afghanistan.

    Dustin (bb61e3)

  19. “Close”, but no cigar, as usual. I doubt Barry has ever said “win the war”, it is always “resolve” or “end” with him and his ilk.

    Gazzer (f4dafa)

  20. I know some folk will strongly disagree with what I’m about to say, but say it I will:

    Rahm and Axelrod sit at the feet of Atwater and Rove. They will engineer an obfuscation at every turn until, as Steven Den Beste said, the nation is so distracted that Afghanistan becomes a memory and we can flee in peace.

    Because although Rahm and Axelrod sit at Rove’s and Atwater’s feet, they worship Alinsky.

    Ag80 (3d1543)

  21. Barack Hussein Obama (SoA) will do all he can to prevent the deaths of fellow jihadis. His obligations under the Koran will not allow him to enable the further slaughter of fellow Muslims so he plays for time and undermines the US economy.

    Obama (SoA) is apparently dithering only because he fully expected the enemies of the faithful to catch on by now. Who would have ever imagined Americans could be so blind and stupid?

    ropelight (d4e3b8)

  22. I call it a “slam dunk”

    It costs $1,000,000 to send one pair of U.S. boots per year “over there”.

    $26,000,000,000 could be saved by withdrawal. But if President – I mean ‘General’ – McChrystal’s recommendation is followed, we will be “investing” $734,000,000,000 in Chaosistan. Is that more than the military budget of the Bush administration? That can’t be!

    Are we ‘over there’ to stimulate our own economic recovery?

    Vigilante (bb511d)

  23. President Obama told CNN his decision on Afghanistan was very close:

    In another couple of weeks, will his decision then become “extremely close”?

    Blacque Jacques Shellacque (76097c)


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