For about two years now, during the campaign and since, we have heard Barack Obama, first as candidate and since then as president, say that Afghanistan is the "good war," the "necessary war." And it was back in March, eight months ago, that President Obama said he already had a strategy for Afghanistan which would "correct" our having taken our "eye off the ball" for the last "eight years" while we pursued victory in Iraq (you know, that "other," bad and unnecessary, and sooo-much-only George W. Bush's war).
Then, in June, five months ago, Obama "fired" General David McKiernan less than a year into his being in charge of our warfighting in Afghanistan and, along with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, handpicked General Stan McChrystal, touted as the Army's premier black ops and counterinsurgency (COIN) expert, to replace him. Obama tasked his new Afghanistan field commander with conducting as assessment of what it would take to win "the good and necessary war" in Afghanistan.
In August, three months ago, General McChrystal delivered his assessment to Obama, generally saying that he needed 40,000 more troops within the next year, or our efforts in Afghanistan would likely fail.
Then, 70 days (or ten weeks) went by with no contact at all from Obama to his new field commander about his recommendations and requests, or anything else, for that matter. Finally, almost seemingly because both of them just happened to be in the same general geographic proximity at the same time -- Obama in Denmark trying to win the 2016 Summer Olympics for Chicago and McChrystal attending a NATO meeting in Belgium -- the general got a 25-minute, one-on-one meeting with his commander-in-chief aboard Air Force One as it idled on the tarmac before Obama returned to the States and McChrystal returned to Afghanistan. No peanuts were served but, of course, a photo op of McChrystal looking "generally" and Obama looking "commander-in-chiefly" appropriately documented the meeting.
Oh, and with the Denmark trip (the last one about the Olympics, not the one coming up to receive his Nobel Peace Prize), Obama had, also in the meantime, visited more countries in his first year in office than any other president in our history. (Gee, I didn't know you got frequent flyer miles for using Air Force One, but evidently you do.) This, while the American economy remained in the dumpster -- while ever growing numbers of Americans lost their jobs -- while the House passed the energy and job crippling Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill -- while the most massive overhaul of our health care and health insurance systems ever undertaken was being considered in the House and then in the Senate -- and while our military servicemembers continued to serve and die in Afghanistan, without knowing what their eventual strategy and objective would be or when they would get some help and how much, if any at all. And that also has to have given General McChrystal some troop morale problems to deal with while he's been waiting so long to hear whether his requests will be honored or not.
In other words, part of that in the meantime was that (a) Obama's casualty count is now nearly double that of George Bush's worst year as commander-in-chief and (b) since receiving McChrystal's assessment back in August, Obama's casualty count is rapidly approaching half of the entire year's total.
Gee, where's the liberal lamestream media's outrage and outcry about all THAT, I wonder? Asleep at the switch again, so-called "mainstream media"? Waiting for someone like Glenn Beck, who's avowedly NOT a journalist, to scoop you -- again? Or are you still deep in meditation about whether Obama's "mistakes" are simply the result of his leftist ideology or just his naive incompetence, like the noted Time magazine columnist Joe Klein recently?
Meanwhile and perhaps partially overlapping some of this same timeline, Obama held what so far has totaled nine "strategy meetings" on Afghanistan. That should mean that by now Obama should know the annual rainfall and what the prevailing winds in, say, August (or any other month) in Afghanistan are, as well as perhaps the names of most of the people, at least the adults, in some small villages. However, what his lengthy, deliberate and dispassionate, almost professorial, examination of what to do in Afghanistan also means is this: if he gets it right, he gets all the credit for taking his time to decide what to do; but if he gets it wrong, he's not leaving himself any (credible) wiggle room to make necessary adjustments at all. In other words, he will have "boxed himself in" -- never a good thing for a field commander in the mud, or even a commander-in-chief in the air-conditioning, to do.
But now, finally, it's being leaked out -- in dribbles and drabs -- what Obama intends to do about "the good and necessary war" in Afghanistan. And that, too, is dribbles and drabs, or as some would say, half-measures: 32,000 to 38,000 troops, with the last of them not to be in theater until as late as 2012. Huh? What? Well, that's not exactly 40,000 within a year, as your handpicked, COIN expert field commander said he needed, is it, Mistah Prez? Besides, as others have already said, if Afghanistan is such a "good and necessary" war, either get "all in to win" or get "all out without doubt." Either play a good hand or fold. Put up or shut up.
Almost as an aside, I wonder, when Obama finally does officially announce his plans and if what has been leaked is true, if McChrystal will resign over not getting what he said he needed and has waited so long to hear about. I also wonder, if Obama has actually finally made his decision, why not give the troops in Afghanistan a little Thanksgiving morale boost by announcing it now, rather than waiting until next week? What's this "thing" our prez seems to have for not only taking forever to make a decision but then also delaying even more to announce what it is? What's so magical about December 1st and making his announcement even more of a (-nother) photo op for himself by using the West Point Corps of Cadets as a prop, again in prime time? (Lordy, about the only thing the man loves more than a TV camera (and his teleprompter, of course) is a TV camera in prime time.)
Besides, practically speaking, the cadets should probably and more beneficially be studying at that time of night anyway, instead of being corralled to listen to and serve as a backdrop for Obama, since "lights out" is only a couple of hours away at 2200 hours.
Hey, I'll tell you what would make a good photo op for you, Mistah Prez. Not only announce now what you've reportedly already decided, instead of waiting another week, but do it while surprising our troops in Afghanistan with a presidential visit for Thanksgiving, to show how much you really care about them and what they're sacrificing for our country.
No? Too much? Schedule too busy? Air Force One needs some downtime from all those other trips abroad? And, what, Miss Thanksgiving at the White House with Michelle and the girls? No way! Yeah, that's true, giving our troops dribbles and drabs of support from a distance does seem to be more your style.....cuz a growing number of us already knows there ain't much substance.