Mission Creep
NY Sun with another Obama advisor off the reservation on Iraq, advocating 60,000 to 80,000 troops at least two years on.
So is Obama not taking his advisors’ advice or is Obama full of it? Would Obama press ahead with abandonment at all costs or does Obama not in fact have a plan? Given that we could end up with this guy as president, it is marginally heartening that he has people who marginally recognize we must have an ongoing presence, but significantly more alarming that he doesn’t appear to have a clue what he would do, and is basing his foreign policy on Kumbayahist pandering.
It’s hard to say which is more alarming a prospect. Abandoning the field, again, when we have the upper hand, and the long-term consequences of that kind of action for the United States, the world and a lot of innocents and troops in conflicts to come. Or half-measures that drag out the bleeding to no end. I suppose the latter bloody-foot-in-the-door maintains the possibility of a future save. The importance of military experience in high political office? Maybe an understanding that anything short of winning is losing.
Speaking of which, Fox has some McCain reax to Obama’s muddled mission vision.
Poligazette, mulling some of the same questions, goes with “full of it.”
Toldjah with a Power seance.
Malkin, looking on the bright side: Somewhere in the Middle East is a slight improvement over Okinawa.
Goldfarb: “Stunning hypocrisy and misdirection.” I dunno. I feel compelled retain faith in the wide-eyed idealism of the Anointed One, and have to think that at the highest level, the fundamental philosophy of the Obama campaign is magical realism.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:31 am on Saturday, April 5, 2008
2 Responses to “Mission Creep”
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April 5th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
[i]So is Obama not taking his advisors’ advice or is Obama full of it? Would Obama press ahead with abandonment at all costs or does Obama not in fact have a plan?[/i]
Yes on all counts.
April 7th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Jules,
60-80K would be 5-7 combat brigades..1 or 3 division HQ’s, Logistics, Air Support and Trainers.
The Patraeus plan calls for drawdown steppings of 15,12,10,7 and 5.
So figure 15 BCT’s till fall of 2008, 12 in spring of 2009, 10 in fall of 2009, 7 in spring of 2010 and 5 in fall of 2010.
Obama plan = Hillary Plan = McCain Plan = Bush Plan = Patraeus Plan.