All In Good Time
Three months later, the president is gearing up to give his field commander what he asked for. Sort of. McClatchy is still reporting it’s going to be 34,000 … a figleaf of futzing around to justify all the dithering. Sure hope those 34,000 aren’t going to look to their right and left and wish they had another 8,000 helping out when it gets hot. Politico: Primetime announcement next week.
It’s another great oratory op for Obama, whose great, lauded accomplishments to date are limited to the wonder he’s induced at his remarkable ability to string together sentences.
I look forward to being surprised, but I doubt this is going to involve any stirring Churchillian “We shall fight them on the beaches” rhetoric, or even any Bushian “With us or against us.” I’m guessing there will be a resigned, even sheepish quality, for all the Obamian jaw-jutting determination, with a little “Saving Private Ryan” greatness sop thrown in. There will be an emphasis on the exit strategy, the how-we-get-out part, which is politically, for Obama, what this is all about. If he chooses to be truly gutless, he can yap on about how he inherited this.
He may not want to be a wartime president, but he ran in time of war, the kind of times that try men’s souls. So as he sends more men and women into war, I hope he manages at least as much stirring rhetoric and a little less disingenuousness than in great speeches past, such as when he made excuses for his bigot of a pastor and was heralded as the second coming of Martin Luther King Jr.
I have no doubt, whatever comes out of his mouth, that it will be met with gobsmacked awe, as commentators note that he is not George Bush, that he talks so much better than George Bush, that he has an exit plan unlike George Bush, that he hit the right note, not like George Bush. And whatever he says, the polls will reflect a bump in support and Congress will fall in line, giving him the appearance, at least briefly, of great leadership.
In the three months he’s been mulling his options, nearly 200 Americans have been killed in action in Afghanistan, their families left to wonder whether they died for something other than their comrades and their duty, or if they would be relegated to join John Kerry’s famous “last man to die for a mistake” … that hapless grunt whose sacrifice was rendered meaningless the last time politicans took counsel of their fears and precipitously undermined a war effort, with disastrous, genocidal results.
There is some reason for optimism he will give those dead and their families hope for something better this time. His recent Fort Hood speech suggests he may be beginning to get that it is bigger than him, that there are actually some players, the pawns in this game, who are more important than him. The regular Americans who step up, who are, in the end, what it is all about. But those were words that still want deeds.
Now is the time and this is the opportunity for him to become what, the tests of this first year notwithstanding, he has managed to dodge, as he’s variously palmed off tough choices and bowed to the will and whims of others.
An American leader. A wartime president. Standing on his own feet, making no excuses, as he sends soldiers into harm’s way to do this dirty job that someone has to do.
I just don’t understand the need to announce to your enemies when and why you will throw in the towel. It should seem quite obvious that if the Taliban wants us out of Afghanistan all they have to do is intensify the fighting over the next six months. Furthermore, the whole idea behind McChrystal’s surge is to gain confidence from the Afghan people so that they will begin helping US forces. Why should they help out if our commitment is so tentative? It would be far safer for them to wait the six months to make sure we stay.Something tells me come June 1, we will be packing it in under the banner of defeat and the White House claiming it was Bush’s fault.
Sad but true, ABC. It isn’t about winning. Never was. It’s about getting out. Looks like you’ve nailed the end game. But I’m ever optimistic he won’t have the guts to quit anymore than he has the guts to win.
More discussion at HotAir, where Ed Morrissey is unimpressed by the talk of “off ramps.”
Gateway on Obama’s plummeting numbers. Here’s an idea. Forget the politics. Become a leader. Americans love that.
Neptunus Lex looks at the Obama White House leak policy, also the political part: Murtha sighting, with taxes.
Politico on the war surtax. Looks like the Dems are finally interested in paying as they go. I love the smell of politics in the morning. Smells like … surrenderism.
War-related, not so different, via Malkin, 9/11 families issue a call to action. It’s about the trials. Another battlefield in the same war, one where the president ceded ground to the enemy.
Unrelated, pretty different, yet … via Surber, Korean cons tell Korean libs to love it or leave, north’s that way.
Topics: Afghanistan,Obama,military
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:38 am Comments (4) on Tuesday, November 24, 2009
4 Responses to “All In Good Time”
Leave a Reply
Trackback URLYou must be logged in to post a comment.
November 24th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Heh. Bush may have more respect internationally than is the CW.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/specials/htsummit-webcast-09/bush-speech.html
November 24th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
[...] Jules Crittenden – All In Good Time [...]
November 24th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
[...] Jules Crittenden: I look forward to being surprised, but I doubt this is going to involve any stirring Churchillian “We shall fight them on the beaches” rhetoric, or even any Bushian “With us or against us.” I’m guessing there will be a resigned, even sheepish quality, for all the Obamian jaw-jutting determination, with a little “Saving Private Ryan” greatness sop thrown in. There will be an emphasis on the exit strategy, the how-we-get-out part, which is politically, for Obama, what this is all about. If he chooses to be truly gutless, he can yap on about how he inherited this. [...]
November 27th, 2009 at 1:46 am
Do the people who have to sit through this get hazardous-duty-pay? After all they are being forced to consort with the enemy. If they stub their toe are they eligible for a Purple-Heart? Otherwise known as the portrait of the man that most liberals love to hate, behind GWB of course.