A Taliban Thanksgiving as Obama again delays decision on Afghanistan

11/25/2009

Posted by superadmin

http://www.examiner.com/x-6356-Wichita-Independent-Examiner~y2009m11d25-A-Taliban-Thanksgiving-as-Obama-again-delays-decision-on-Afghanistan

The Taliban and Al Qaeda received another respite from President Obama this week when he decided to yet again postpone a decision on General McChrystal’s request for additional troops in Afghanistan until after the Thanksgiving holiday.

While the AP is reporting that the country (and the forgotten troops already in Afghanistan) will finally be graced with Obama’s “revised” strategy early next week, the delay has been, in military jargon, one fubar after another.

The mess started with an initial review last spring that resulted in the firing of Gen. David McKiernan in May and replacing him with Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal. Because, in Defense Secretary Gate’s words, “fresh thinking” on Afghanistan was urgently needed.

But when that same, hand picked, “fresh thinking”, general plopped a 40,000 troop increase request on the President’s desk in August all of a sudden a “new” review of Afghanistan was needed. (In Obama speech that translates into: Crap, what the hell does McChrystal think he’s doing? He was appointed to be a “different” kind of general. I’ll never get this past my left wing base.)

And so McChrystal and the men and women actually carrying the burden have been forced to wait for months while the White House political machine spun the delays as a deliberate and thoughtful process. (Translated: We’re in it up to our eyeballs now and we don’t have a clue what to do next.)

Even our most staunch ally, Great Britain, is publicly wondering what the hell this White House is doing. It has gotten so bad, that UK Defense Secretary Bob Ainsworth publicly stated Obama’s delays as a reason for loss of British public support for the crucial mission against the Taliban.

But it does now seems that even Obama couldn’t bear the thought of his legacy being the President who lost his own “war of necessity” and will grant McChrystal most of what he wants. (According to AP’s Anne Gearan and Jennifer Loven , the troop increase will be in the 32,000 to 35,000 range.)

So other than providing the President political cover, it appears the delay accomplished precious little. All the while, precious time was lost and even more importantly more precious American blood was spilled.

If FDR had been as indecisive as this President has been so far, instead of the famous: “Yesterday, December 7th, a date which will live in infamy….”, we’d have, “A few months back, on a date I’m not really sure of…..”

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