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I hope that the West Point cadets nodding off during President Obama's address Tuesday night recognize the weight of their commander in chief's words. Over the next six months, an additional 30,000 troops will be heading to Afghanistan, with pullout beginning in July 2011.Katie Johnson: Obama takes ownership in ‘defining moment’
Published 11:40am Wednesday, December 2, 2009Those who tuned into the speech heard the president outline a plan with a little something for everyone – an increase in troops, yet an extremely quick pullout date.
Obama indicated in his speech that he inherited two wars; however, the focus was on the wrong one.
“Today, after extraordinary costs, we are bringing the Iraq war to a responsible end,” Obama said, adding, “The situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated.
“No, I do not make this decision lightly,” he said. “The stakes are higher in nuclear-armed Pakistan.”
In what many have called the “defining moment” of his presidency, Obama took ownership of the war.
“As your commander in chief I owe you a mission that is clearly defined,” the president told the cadets.
His plan begs the question: What happens if July 2011 rolls around, more American and civilian lives have been lost, an estimated $30 billion per year has been spent, and the Taliban is not under control? What if the U.S. has not established a partnership with Pakistan, as he indicated in his speech, was vital to the their success? What if sending more troops does not dismantle the “safe haven” for the terrorists, as he says?
Sen. John McCain said after the speech that although he supports sending more troops, he does not support Obama’s “arbitrary” dates for withdrawal, claiming it will “empower” the Taliban. When asked how he believes it should be funded, he had no concrete answer other than to freeze funding. Obama himself did not detail a plan for funding the additional troops, instead just grazing over the issue, saying it will be addressed when the country works to pay down its debt.
According to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, 38 percent of Americans “strongly believe” the war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting, while 30 percent “strongly believe” it is. Forty-six percent of Americans said they would strongly support sending a higher number of troops to Afghanistan to fight al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
The puppy love is fading for the president as he completes his first year in office, though to be fair, most presidents’ ratings sink the longer they are in office. And Americans have expressed their frustration after eight years of war.
The presidential address itself was not really the “defining moment” of Obama’s presidency, but merely a taste of where it is headed. How the president’s plan will pan out remains to be seen.
Katie Johnson is managing editor of the Niles Daily Star, Edwardsburg Argus and Cassopolis Vigilant. She can be reached at (269) 687-7713 or at katie.john son@leaderpub.com.
Ms. Johnson makes the assertion, as the Obama administration has, that the war in Iraq is the “wrong war.” Why? They (the liberals, and by extension Ms Johnson) think that because there were no “weapons of mass destruction” located within Iraq that the invasion and subsequent regime change was both unjustified and illegal, not to mention immoral. They are wrong. Every bit of intelligence from every source on the planet supported the notion that such weapons not only were in Iraq, but available for use. There is adequate proof that Hussein was willing to use such weapons, as his attacks on Kurdish villages in northern Iraq have shown. That isn’t enough though, as most liberals believe that Iraq was better off and more secure under a leader that had no qualms in killing entire villages to secure them. Afghanistan suddenly became the “right war” as both the dreaded Taliban and Al Queada were located there. The Taliban, who are against women’s rights are the enemy and Al Queada, because they are the organization that plotted with president Bush to destroy the World Trade Center. The Truth is, Afghanistan is also the wrong war, as we have chosen a half hearted effort and instituted rules of engagement that will insure either defeat or a Vietnam type withdrawal. There is also the spectre of the Soviet invasion into the mountians of Afghanistan, and the defeat they suffered after years of “limited warfare.” If this is to be the right war, we must commit enough resources to drive the Taliban and Al Queda into those mountains and then rain enough steel on them to reduce the mountains to hills and fill the passes with rubble. Let not a rabbit survive. War is about killing and destroying until it breaks the will of the enemy. Treating it like anything else is unfair to those who have and will lose their lives.
Mike is right.
We are fighting a war…a war started by terrorists based in Afghanistan…a war started on U.S. soil. We need to win this war and not with a plan that has “a little something for everyone”. A plan to win a war has only one thing in mind…WINNING!
Wars are not won by politics. Wars are won by pounding the enemy into submission. This isn’t a friendly card game…IT IS WAR!
wow there were indeed WMD’s in iraq?
FOX NEWS again.
I would rather hear a President consider and Talk the
responsabilities He owes to the military, rather than one
whom only thinks of what the military owes him.
I know War, I know what it looks like, Sounds like, Feels like, even Smells like, and I hate war, and think most are flights into
National Insanity, and understand it’s total cost.
I know before furiously waving the flags, and beating the Drums We MUST count all the cost, beyond your idealog
Silly philosophies.
Those mean nothing to a Combat vet sleeping under a bridge
to fend off the rain.
everything is done as a demonization of your political Enemies, and I mean enemies, as you guys actualy hate those who disagree with your sillyness.
Remember when You finaly distroy all Your enemies, you must go on to even destroy yourselves.
Saddam was a bad character, i wouldn’t desire him
in the church choir.
BUT…………….. He didn’t Invade America and kill
2.7 million civilians, and Injure maim, and disable
3 times that amount, because His neo cons wanted a war
the WMD’s he used on his own people WE SOLD TO HIM.
so rally round the flags Boy’s and Sing the Songs of
Victory We won!
but at what cost?
Saddam was a Piker compared to us in
the horrors wrought upon Iraq.
Do We even know the long term effects that, Bombs, missles, and Ammunition made from atomic waste will bring upon iraq?
let alone our own Military?