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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009
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 CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER 
32

Time to Act Presidential on Afghanistan

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

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(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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32 comments
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RobN
Oct 30, 09 11:45 AM CDT
Don't worry Charles, he'll decide right after the governor's races are decided next week. Reply
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Wraith
Oct 30, 09 12:33 PM CDT
Well Rob, here's one for you. 1: We should never have abandoned Afghanistan 1: Once we did we should have continued to leave them alone and stayed the hell out of the place. 3: Now that GW placed us there and he diddled around for 7 years the only thing left to do is see what Gov the Afghan people want in a fair election (something Republicans knew little about until last year) and then either pull out or do as asked by the dully elected Gov. Obama lagging? B/S. Bush doesn't get a free walk on this crap, he may be selling bargain basement priced tickets to earn a buck but GW owns this damn quagmire not Obama, Obama is just stuck attempting to keep down American deaths, or do you relish seeing more American blood spilled for no reason at all, if you do then I suggest you drag your arm chair quarterbacking a$$ on over there and grab a gun oh Guru of the cereal bowl..
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IN RESPONSE:
RobN
Oct 30, 09 12:58 PM CDT
Writh, even if every single thing you said is true, it still has nothing to do with my comment. I believe he's holding off on a decision so that it doesn't influence next week's election. I believe he's holding off on a decision purely for political reasons. Thank you for the lovely recap of our years in Afghanistan, but it really has nothing to do with my point.
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kokuaguy
Oct 30, 09 5:38 PM CDT
Scott Ritter has more experience and expertise in evaluating questions like this than anyone -- and his track record is nearly 100% on everything. He warned from the get-go that there were no WMDs in Iraq and that Bush/Cheney/and Rummy were taking the US into a phony and unwinnable war. Here is his take on General McChrystal and the so-called "surge" in Afghanistan: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/10/30-5
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kokuaguy
Oct 30, 09 5:55 PM CDT
Even Thomas Friedman "gets it."http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/10/29-3
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