Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Obama's Afghanistan Strategy

OK, this is getting ridiculous. How DO they do it?


OBAMA: "...it is in our vital national interest... After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home."

7 comments:

  1. OK, I laughed at the cleverness of your photo, but will you look at the faces of those cadets?

    I remember a different mood when President Bush met with our troops.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The selecting of arbitrary dates on the calendar is ridiculous. Isn't the purpose of this supposed to be "defeat the enemy" rather than "get everyone out at a certain time?"

    Geez.... does Barack announce to Michelle just before they make love. "So you know, I will be pulling out exactly 18 minutes from now, and then I will get out of bed, put on a robe, and go make a sandwich". ???

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cube, this was Der Spiegel's take on the reception from the troops:

    Just minutes before the president took the stage inside Eisenhower Hall, the gathered cadets were asked to respond "enthusiastically" to the speech. But it didn't help: The soldiers' reception was cool.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is Vietnam all over again; the big build-up in '68 for Westmoreland, (all he needed was more troops to end this thing), and then the strategy, "we will Vietnamize the war, and train the Southern Vietnam Army to fight, and then the outcome: we will lose and hang our heads in disgrace.

    There are no clear battle lines in this war and no real clear enemy (just like the VietCong)...just a bunch of mountains for the Taliban to launch their assaults from; and now more targets to hit. If you enter a war with no clear battle lines and no clear enemy, you are a jackass. Obama, you are a jackass. Drop the big bomb or get the funk out of Afghanistan.

    ReplyDelete
  5. cube- It was not without some wince factor that I posted that picture, when considering what lies ahead for these young men and women - our American children. I'm using the Salahi's and their egotistical pursuit of attention as a representation of Obama himself. The contrast between their silliness and the cadets is meant to be sobering. I hope it is taken in that context.
    dmarks- "Victory" is not in Obama's lexicon, nor his teleprompter apparently. Nice hypothetical :) Though I think you're "18 minutes" is being way too kind to The One's First One.
    Chuck- Cool indeed. Some looked outwardly cynical, and who could blame them.
    dr. h- I can't argue with your take on this in any way. I am not hopeful that these bands of Islamofacist tribes in this most hellish terrain could ever be molded into a working society, and I have no desire to see our best patriots propped up as a kind of Obama reelection canon fodder. That said, this is where al queda hit us from, and with a belligerant Iran pursuing nuclear weapons, do we dare afford to "get the frank out" of the neighborhood? Do you suggest we ignore them completely, or use the Biden counter-terrorism strategy of limited ground troops and Predators as thick as mosquitos? I'd rather see that then an 18-month plan to fail.
    WHT- I agree. Hope you read my response to cube.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I took it the way you intended. It is a serious situation, but it doesn't mean we can't inject humor into it.

    dmarks: First, CT is right about you being too kind about the 18 minutes.

    Second, thanks for putting THAT image in my head. I could make a wookie comment, but I won't.

    ReplyDelete