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Time to Act Presidential on Afghanistan

After 'yearlong drift,' Obama can't keep passing buck to Bush

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 30, 2009 11:40 AM CDT

(Newser) – President Obama loves to blame things on George W. Bush, and on Monday he did it again, referring to the “long years of drift in Afghanistan.” He must be trying to “explain away his own, well, yearlong drift on Afghanistan,” writes Charles Krauthammer. In March, Obama solemnly announced a new strategy following what he called a “comprehensive strategy review.” Now, he obviously wants to switch course.

That’s nothing new. “The history of both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars is a considered readjustment of policies that have failed.” In both cases, we tried to use a light footprint, and it failed. This isn’t “drift,” Krauthammer writes in the Washington Post, it’s the result of faulty decision making, most recently Obama’s own. “He is to be commended for reconsidering. But it is time he acted like a president and decided.”

President Barack Obama speaks on plans to help small businesses, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus.
President Barack Obama speaks on plans to help small businesses, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus.   (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 26 comments
That_Guy
Oct 31, 2009 9:33 AM CDT
But that is the crux of it. The military doesn't do Politics. When militaries get into politics, you're asking for trouble. But what militaries do need is a strong civilian leader to tell them the plan. Generals are not robots who follow orders without thought, but after discussion, will follow orders without question. General McChrystal gave his 2 cents and went back to the trenches to wait on the word from the President. It's about time he got marching orders. Because if he doesn't recieve orders, he's going to either follow the last order given, or follow the intent as he understands it, which may not be in keeping with the Strategic outcome the President wants. The bad news in that scenario is that in the abscence of orders, he will take the intiative, and the golden rule of military leadership will kick in: the leader on the ground is ALWAYS right. Of course the President can retaliate by firing him, but then any support the President might have had or wish to have with the military will be gone because the military supports their own, and not thier politicians.
dj-spellchecka
Oct 31, 2009 8:49 AM CDT
in krautworld 7 years = 9 months....charlie just wants obama to bomb the crap out of everything that moves over there...that's his one and only answer to any foreign policy question...
So_Cal_Larry
Oct 31, 2009 7:42 AM CDT
There's one thing which has been consistent down through the years: conservative republicans are shills for the generals who are forever ready to conduct the wars which train the next generation of generals. It never ends. If the generals call for money & troops - give it to them, they need it to keep us safe. The politics of war is too important to be left to the generals. Take your time, President Obama, and get it right.
 

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