You can’t fight a successful war unless the commander-in-chief is fully committed to it. So President Obama’s chief task in his speech Tuesday night on Afghanistan is to make it absolutely clear that he is.
***It’s true that Obama championed Afghanistan as the “good war” in his presidential campaign last year. And as recently as August, he called it “a war of necessity.” But his painful, three-month deliberation on what to do in Afghanistan severely undermined his prior statements.
The point is legitimate doubts about Obama’s tenacity in Afghanistan — his level of commitment — abound in the military, among allies whom Obama wants to deploy more troops, and with the American public. More than anything else, he needs to lay those doubts to rest in his address.
So despite the fact that the previous administration almost completely ignored Afghanistan for the last two terms, and the fact that it was Obama who immediately rushed more supplies and personnel to Afghanistan upon his inauguration, because Obama has not immediately followed through with the next neo-con wet dream and instead took a couple months to determine the best course of action, he has a credibility problem.
Up is down with these people, and I simply can’t believe they can say or write this crap without bursting out in laughter. They have to know how full of shit they are. They just have to.
And again, Sullivan:
If he does the full metal neocon as he is being urged to, he should not be deluded in believing the GOP will in any way support him. They will oppose him every step of every initiative. They will call him incompetent if Afghanistan deteriorates, they will call him a terrorist-lover if he withdraws, they will call him a traitor if he does not do everything they want, and they will eventually turn on him and demand withdrawal, just as they did in the Balkans with Clinton. Obama’s middle way, I fear, is deeper and deeper into a trap, and the abandonment of a historic opportunity to get out.
Is there any doubt that this is exactly what is going to happen?
Demo Woman
It is happening!!! The great war correspondent Meghan McCain has already posted a scathing article about the President. JenJen linked to it earlier, I refuse to.
joe from Lowell
I looked long and hard for the evidence to support Barnes’ assertion that the military has “legitimate doubts” and “qualms” about Obama, but I couldn’t seem to find it.
I guess we’re just supposed to assume that Da Troops all hate teh Democrat, because, being Da Troops, they must.
Except the black ones. And the Latinos. But they don’t count.
Noonan
Best part of Barnes:
Sumthin tells me Barnes and Co. will help him claim ownership of Bush’s war.
kommrade reproductive vigor
I’m certain he has plenty of evidence to back up this passive-voice b.s. I also just got an excellent deal on a bridge.
In my dreams, Obama announces the only way to get enough troops to Afghanistan is to draft [pause for all the war wankers’ heads to explode] a resolution to get more funding for the war.
Oh well, I guess I’ll have to settle for the tantrums that will ensue when he says since freedom isn’t free, some people will have to pay more taxes.
No. Because a conversion of his eyeblinks during the speech to morse code will show he was sending secret messages to OBL.
calipygian
Already started.
Funny how McChrystal actually asked for a range of 10-40k troops, yet if Obama doesn’t go all in with the full 40, he’s following the orders of his al-Qaeda masters.
licensed to kill time
I can’t wait to see Obama in a Commander Codpiece flightsuit. That’ll convince ’em he’s manly enough to fight His War. Plus it’d be teh hawt .
John PM
I will support continued involvement in Afghanistan as long as the entire staffs and all contributors to the Weekly Standard and National Review agree to join the military and fight there.
Mike E
Listened to Neil Conan and Ted Koppel on TOTN — the prez clearly hasn’t sold this Afghan War, eight years on, properly to the American people. We need more education. Because a simple “right v wrong” calculation can’t give this issue a proper shake. Polls are the enemy. Pakistan has a lot of nukes. These two assholes said all this.
I need a hobby, because this maddening shit will make me start swinging the proverbial “sock full of manure.”
Ash
@licensed to kill time: I’m fanning myself just thinking about it. Phew, starbursts, they’re EVERYWHERE.
Brian J
Not that there’s really any big difference between the two besides this, but I find Barnes far more irritating than, say Bill Kristol, because he comes across as such a smug prick on television.
Anyway, these remarks from Brad DeLong come to mind:
Rick Massimo
But – but the previous administration only let Afghanistan fester because they were creating peeance and freeance in Iraq, which was the most important thing EVAH and Obama was wrong and a wimp to think that was a stupid war to get into and thus hated America also too which is why he needs to be manly and strong tonight and yes this DOES all make sense and shut up, that’s why!
Mnemosyne
Damn, I hope he announces a tax increase tomorrow to fund the war. That’s the only thing that could possibly kill it at this point.
calipygian
@John PM:
I’m not saying that the US Military requires America’s Best and Brightest to enlist, but the enlistees have to have a certain measure of confidence.
You’d never get Doughbob out of the chowhall, the other soldiers would give Goldfarb a blanket party every night and given how wrong Billy Kristol is about EVERYTHING, I wouldn’t assign him to Iranian Army style mine clearance, much less give him a weapon.
Flitterbic
Many people take 3 months or longer to decide on a major purchase – a house, a car, a friggin’ kitchen appliance. But what to do with an 8-year old war that the last codpiece-in-chief clearly wasn’t “fully committed to”? That should be done as quickly as ordering a #1 at the drive-thru or resign. Assholes.
calipygian
@calipygian: …certain measure of competence!
Where’s that consarned edit button?
Jonny Scrum-half
Didn’t W take a couple months to decide on “the surge” in Iraq?
dmsilev
I’d *really* like Obama to directly address the Republicans tomorrow and say “Since you folks oppose everything I say and do with the reliability of Pavlov’s salivating dogs, I am publicly declaring that I am ignoring everything that comes out of your mouths, pens, and computers. And good luck looking for that birth certificate.” If nothing else, it’d give the political media about six weeks worth of Shiny Object to bat around.
-dms
licensed to kill time
@Ash: “Cleanup on Aisle 9, cleanup on Aisle 9 please!”
Alex S.
I hope Obama knows what he’s doing…. Maybe it’s in exchange for Lieberman’s health care vote or something… but he is sending a dangerous signal. I hope he announces some kind of exit strategy tomorrow. I don’t want this war to take more time than the Vietnam War. I want this war to be over by 2016.
Persia
@licensed to kill time: Am I the only one who thinks that flightsuit looks kinda silly?
El Cid
I think Obama ought to propose an additional 1,000,000 U.S. troops and ask the Republicans for volunteers and bond-buyers to pay for them. Just for fun. You know. Just to see.
Boots Day
Barnes is explicitly tying himself to the “clap louder” strategy.
Presumably, the reasons his heroes Bush and Cheney fought in Afghanistan (with no victory in sight) for longer than it took to win World War II is that they just didn’t make their commitment clear to everyone.
bayville
No.
But then again I’m not a 22-dimensional chess player like the White House gang.
It’s war time, baby!
Time to unpack the foam fingers, cue up the Tony Orlando 8-track, fly the Stars & Stripes high and tape a big ol’ yellow ribbon to the back of your Hummer.
Remember, the only way to really“Support the Troops” is by sending them into battle by the tens of thousands.
Seanly
Put the top two tax rates back to their Reagan era levels. Keep saying “How could it be so wrong if it was right for Reagan”. I think that would cause a Star Trek-style feedback self destruct loop in wingnuts – everything Reagan did was good, tax increases are bad, yet if everything Reagan did was good then tax increase can’t be bad, but they are… {head tilts dramatically to one side while smoke pours from ears}
Anne Laurie
@dmsilev:
But they’d never get the faint odor of pissed pants out of the nice new Press Den carpets…
licensed to kill time
@Persia: No, and it looked especially silly on W. I never understood the over the top reactions of some (coughTweetycough) in the media about it.
But I have a feeling Obama could make it look pretty hot, he just sorta does that.
Jason Bylinowski
@Mike E: Yeah, I am almost guaranteed to hate the program if Neil Conan brings on Ted Koppel. I thought Neil was an alright guy until this year, as he let the NPR Ombudsman take a crap on-air in an attempt to explain their reasoning for not using the word torture in any of their stories. But everyday he seems a little more hawkish to me. That’s not a good thing to be, by the way. I still like him for his regular segments but this round table pow-wow shit has got to go.
John Cole, you couldn’t have chosen a better Sullivan quote to refeature. When I read that during lunch my thought was, “Has Obama read this shit?, because he totally should.”
Why is Obama making the wrong choice here? Because he so clearly is. I THOUGHT that all the delaying tactics were his way of tastefully getting out of recommitting to Afghanistan. I’m not going to turn Republican anytime soon, but lately he does make me wonder if we wouldn’t have been better off with Clinton II. (& It pains me to say that.)
beltane
A theoretical visitor from another planet would look upon this situation and come to the conclusion that Fred Barnes, Bill Kristol and the rest of them are actively seeking to destroy the United States. That is the only logical conclusion one can come to after studying the totality of their careers. Not that I’d question their patriotism or anything…
calipygian
@beltane:
Kristol is the son of a barely reconstructed Trotskyite. I will question his patriotism and note that Kristol seeking to fulfill his dad’s Trotskyite plan of destroying capitalism and the US can’t be discounted.
It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
joe from Lowell
This, btw, is a very important point.
The question of whether we’re going to wobble the numbers up for a little while, or bring them down for a little while, isn’t nearly as important as the question, “What are we doing there?”
Just as, in 2006, the question “Should we have a surge?” wasn’t nearly as important as the question, “Are we planning on staying in Iraq indefinitely, or are we going to make leaving our official strategy?”
A 30,000 person troop increase could be consistent with a permanent occupation and open-ended commitment, or it could be consistent with a medium-term strategy of withdrawal.
Joe Beese
It’s Obama’s War now, all right. And it will remain so until January 20, 2013.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Our idiot media is so fixated on the number of troops being deployed that they can’t understand why it took so long – after all, how hard could it be to just pick a number out of a hat? What nobody with a microphone seems to get is that the decisions to be made regarding what the troops will be doing is far more complicated and important that deciding how many of them are needed, and the latter decision necessarily precedes the former.
We really do have the stupidest, most ignorant press and punditry in the history of stupid, ignorant press & punditry.
dmsilev
@Anne Laurie: I would regard that as a feature, not a bug. A warning for the next generation of press morons.
-dms
gwangung
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Dude, yeah.
(As well, as…deciding what to do is most definitely NOT committing yourself. Why is there all this crap about “dithering” when there’s clearly no ticking time bomb in Afghanistan????????)
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Dear gawd I hate it when I screw up little things like that.
Montysano
Got any polling, Fred? Any demographics? Got anything at all? Or is it “Sorry but we’ll have to leave it there”?
Shorter Fred Barnes: “Deadline approaches. Time to pull something outta my ass.”
General Winfield Stuck
I am about at the point that I think Obama should just say fuck it, America, you don’t deserve a presnit with a brain and conscience and do what he thinks is right. Whatever that be for Afgan. and Iraq. He should call up Reid and tell him to take the HCR bill, Public Option and all, and wrap it up in a spiffy Xmas package with a purdy bow, and shove it down the wingnuts and blue dog piehole with no liquids to wash it down with. And when he gets the time send the Fibbies to fit Dick Cheney with custom bracelets and frog march his sorry sadistic ass down the the river of justice and babtize the fat fucker with the Holy Water of Baby Jeevus, the libtard one. And lock his ass up until the end of time.
Same with every other thing he promised to do, and become a one term presnit that will give Broder one last hard on, and bring in the Palin/Lucifer presnitcy and the devil be damned for this country and the sick sick sick political dialogue that passes for 4 th estate Jeffersonian Democracy. Gather up the kids and head for the hills. Cause Levi is comin’ to town, any day now.
The End.
beltane
@calipygian: I once had a conversation with a self-proclaimed communist who urged me to vote for George Bush because the Republicans would “make the system collapse”. Not being a communist, I voted for Al Gore.
AngusTheGodOfMeat
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
That’s why there is no edit, so that those mistakes can be captured and frozen into amber for posterity.
Violet
@Seanly:
Yes, yes, yes. Dems are really stupid not to have figured this out. Use their Reagan fetish against them. “Reagan loved those tax rates. Don’t you love Reagan?”
Demo Woman
@Alex S.: Well if you are talking about active troops that started in 65 and ended in 75. It won’t be long before we pass that. If you are talking about monetary involvement and advisers, we have a long way to go.
Zifnab
What are the troops supposed to be doing? WINNING! Duhr.
kay
I don’t think Fred Barnes means a word of it. I don’t think he gives a rat’s ass what actually happens in Afghanistan.
They spend all day making purely political pronouncements, based on purely imaginary Benchmarks Of Leadership.
Not a day goes by that Obama doesn’t have one or another “challenge” to meet, from the Right wing punditry, who sit on their asses and pontificate.
Hendrick Hertzberg writes that the difference between Iraq and Afghanistan is that neoconservatives lied their asses off in the run-up to the Iraq war, so spent the next 5 years lying to cover that up. They never surmounted the Original Sin.
I think that’s an important distinction, but one that would be lost on Fred Barnes. The invasion of Afghanistan wasn’t predicated on a lie. The last thing we need are the Iraq liar choir chiming in and muddling things up.
Just Some Fuckhead
What eight years, John? What the hell are you talking about? My wingnut presidential history guide sez we went from Liberal One World Gov’t Tax-Raising Bush I to Two Terms of Blowjobs And Murders to Eight Years Of OMFG Can You Believe How Bad Things Woulda Been If Gore Had Been Elected to Muslobama. Heh, gonna have to update Conservapedia with my new name for Obama.
Leelee for Obama
@El Cid: I, personally, would buy tickets to that speech. Jesus, can you just hear the gnashing and wailing? They’d get what they want, and find out how much they didn’t want it. The law re-instating the draft would need a trigger, you know, just in case the War Hawk Repubs failed to, you know, volunteer.
Rick Taylor
Remember when the Bush administration literally forgot to include money for rebuilding Afghanistan in its budget?
kay
@Zifnab:
I’ll tell you what I’ve learned. That it doesn’t matter if it’s a Democrat or a Republican escalating a war.
The media are 100% lock-step on board.
It is shocking the conformity, from the same set of stooges who have spent six months vigorously opposing any health care reform, repeating the talking points of the opposition.
We’ve found the single issue of this Democratic President we can reliably count on media to back, like freaking lemmings. More troops.
Where’s this mindless cheerleading when Obama proposes a fix to any other “problem”?
Maude
@kay: And Barnes doesn’t seem to know that it’s a NATO operation and Obama has to talk with all of the countries. Barnes also hasn’t listened to What Gordon Brown has been saying.
I’m tired of these know it alls. Smug and so superior.
They are trying to knock down any chance that Obama may succeed. This is Before the announcement. Let’s fasten our seat belts, Kay, for after the speech.
arguingwithsignposts
@Brian J:
really? And Kristol doesn’t? I find BK infinitely insufferable for the very reason you mention above. Barnes has just been at it longer.
Alex S.
@Demo Woman:
Shame on me, but I use the Wikipedia time frame (1959-1975). That’s sixteen years and that would coincide with my demand from Obama to end this war within his two terms.
valdivia
@General Winfield Stuck:
so with you!
Just Some Fuckhead
@arguingwithsignposts:
I’ve always thought Bloody Bill came across as earnest and likable on teevee.
arguingwithsignposts
I may be wrong on this, so someone correct me, but I don’t recall Musharaf being in such hot water in 01-02, you know, before we invaded the neighboring country and kicked all the psycho religious fanatics into the Pakistan mountain regions.
So now our main reason for remaining in Afghanistan is because we don’t want Pakistan to fall because of the nukes. But Pakistan wouldn’t be in as much danger if we hadn’t pushed the Taliban/AQ into Pakistani territory.
The tar pit isn’t because of Afghanistan itself, but the domino to the west, right? (because while it would be shitty to abandon Afghanistan to teh suckage that is the Taliban, it would basically be status quo ante plus a couple hundred thousand dead bodies)
So maybe the Afghanistan War wasn’t the “just war” after all?
Am I missing something here?
arguingwithsignposts
@Just Some Fuckhead:
don’t snark me, bro.
He does come off as less insufferable when he’s chatting with Jon Stewart, but that’s about it.
Svensker
It is time for the War Tax. If we’re going to fight them, then let’s fucking pay for them.
Personally, I think that every one who has supported these wars should pay double-extra, but I’m pissy that way.
You want bombs, baby? Then fucking fork over the cash. No credit cards accepted.
chrome agnomen
if i had to be led into battle by either W or obama, it would be an easy choice. the former would order us to charge into a suicidal situation while he cowered in the bunker with his soaking wet codpiece and soiled flight suit; the latter would weigh all the strategic options to try and accomplish mission goals with a minimum of casualties. W’s overriding concern would always be getting W’s ass back without a scratch; obama’s would be getting everybody’s ass back safely.
substitute any chairborne neocon name for W.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@kay:
I commented on this in an earlier thread. For the media, it is all about blowing shit up. Because that sells the news – nothing sells newspapers and gets eyeballs on the TV like a war. It is the ultimate in “if it bleeds, it leads”. See the Spanish-American war for example. The media doesn’t care about anything else in the way of ideology or principles, if they can just egg somebody on into blowing shit up, it makes their day.
chrome agnomen
@calipygian:
@13 those three ass lickers would get the blackwater treatment–gang raped and locked in a storage trailer for the duration.
not that there’s anything wrong with that….
Montysano
@arguingwithsignposts:
Only that, IMHO, you’re not nearly cynical enough. Do you really think that the CEO of Halliburton or Bechtel give a flying fuck about the oppression of women by the Taliban? I don’t. I do think that they pop an enormous boner over the fact that they bill the US gummint for gasoline at $400.00/gal, and would like to suck this sugar tit for as long as possible. This is why we’re in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I live in one of the HQs of the military industrial complex, and people around here are very frank about it: do they want the war(s) to end? Hell no. While the rest of the country is in bad shape, our unemployment rate is under 6%, the stores are packed, the restaurants are packed. Life is good.
kommrade reproductive vigor
@John PM: Um. I take it you missed this report.
srv
Well, since he’s going to follow through with the neocon wet dream, is that what it takes to make it credible?
The facts are, three months really isn’t accurate. In April, Obama embraced the COIN strategery. That was the whole point of McChrystal getting the job. Then the good Gen. came back, and asked for a slew of more troops to implement COIN. No one in the 4GW-o-sphere was surprised by this, but they had been debating whether Obama A) had a clue what COIN would take or B) he was that stupid.
The administration’s National Security gurus then proceeded to act gobsmacked. Which apparently, many of these amateurs were. What Gen. Jones was smoking in his briefings is still TBD. There are those who think the Patreaus wing at the Pentagon blindsided Obama and for some reason Gen. Jones went along with it.
Or maybe Jones really isn’t the rocket scientist the Dems have played him up to be, and McMullen/Patreaus wanted to humiliate him. Patreaus is extremely ambitious and reputedly has a very low opinion of the old guard.
kay
@Maude:
The President needs the backing of the public for a war? Obama has to lead us lockstep into battle?
Is that the latest Leadership Challenge ?
Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t conservatives telling us last year that President Bush was a heroic war-maverick because he completely ignored everyone but his boiled-down base?
Bush was a leader even if no one was following him. In fact, no one following Bush was FURTHER PROOF that he was a visionary leader.
They make my head hurt.
srv
I meant Mullen, not McMullen.
And yes, I know McChrystal is not really a COIN expert. He’s a poseur.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/derrick-crowe/gen-mcchrystals-assessmen_b_294874.html
General Winfield Stuck
@valdivia:
Thanks., Somebody has to hold the fort down.
Sean
Oh crud.
Andrew Sullivan is being insightful, realistic and honest.
I hate it when hypocritical, dishonest douche-bags rejoin the reality-based community.
It makes me question everything I thought I knew about the world.
Thanks for the existential dilemma, Sullivan.
Jerk.
-S
PeakVT
The next 48 hours of American journamalism is going to be one giant puke contest.
Shawn in ShowMe
@arguingwithsignposts
If Bush ordered 100,000 troops into Afghanistan eight years ago, maybe there wouldn’t be enough of the psycho religous fanatics’ operations left to cause so much trouble in Pakistan today.
arguingwithsignposts
@Sean:
Andrew Sullivan is being insightful, realistic and honest.
…
I hate it when hypocritical, dishonest douche-bags rejoin the reality-based community.
…
Just wait a few days, I’m sure he’ll pull another Trig or Bell Curve to disabuse you of that notion.
arguingwithsignposts
@arguingwithsignposts:
blockquote fail. FYWP.
Jody
Sean:
…I came in here specifically to say this. Thank you.
Elie
General Winfield @ 37
Yeah!
Absolutely right on…sigh
What the hell are we doing?
I was thinking the other day of how hard folks in my community in northern WA have worked to “restore” (HA!) a few salmon to one little local creek. Well, we have been at this for 7 years and maybe 3-4 salmon have “returned” to spawn.
The meantime, assholes have voted to throw out council people who have supported clean water regulations and mandated evaluation of septic systems along our creeks and bay to help assure the safety of our shellfish and salmon. They have been replaced with folks supported by the developers who destroyed so much of the habitat that the ever diminishing salmon cling to.
I am mad, so damned mad. I really am ready to move back to the “big city”. The pain of seeing each year pass with ever decreasing salmon across the region and ever decreasing sea birds and orca is breaking me down. They have no idea. Me. A city chic is having to tell these so called local people who grew up in the woods with salmon and such, what a precious thing they losing. Me. All the while they crow about being local, decent folks in comparison to those horrible outsiders. What a hoot!
Smedley
@calipygian:
“It would be irresponsible not to speculate.”
That’s very Beckian of you. But then speculation is all we have.
NB: Can’t make Block Quotes work. Need training.
S
noncarborundum
@Just Some Fuckhead:
If by “earnest and likable” you mean “smug and prickish”, then I’m inclined to agree.
BillCinSD
@srv: isn’t McChrystal the Salvadoran option guy
Wilson Heath
@Boots Day:
I’m late to the show here, so you kinda beat me to it. I was wondering why “clap louder” wasn’t a post tag.
licensed to kill time
I’m clapping louder for my reply arrow. If I submit to the WP Higher Power, will it give it back? {{{clapping clapping}}}