Obama Failing On Afghanistan

And badly:

The Commander in Chief let [McChrystal's strategy and troop request] languish at the Pentagon for a month before even requesting it. Obviously, he already knew what was in it; the Pentagon leaked it, and its major components were widely reported: Switch to a counterinsurgency strategy and send more troops, structurally very like the strategy Gen. David Petraeus used so successfully in Iraq.

But the Obamacle sat and sat, squirmed and squirmed, unable to decide what to do about it (which is why he didn’t request it be sent over to la Casa Blanca, because that formally “starts the clock”). Why? Why does he fiddle while Afghanistan burns? Our Marines and soldiers are dying.

The first is that Obama is congenitally incapable of making up his mind, of course. He has always been far more comfortable issuing lofty and vague encyclicals, then voting “present.”

But he seems more torn that usual this time… and I believe there is a deeper reason why this particular decision is such an Obamic dilemma. This is the biggest, most consequential military decision he has ever had to make in his life… and it is the first entirely lose-lose choice of his immature administration.

What?! He sat on this for a month while American troops were fighting and dying?? Nevertheless, the choice is to either accept McChrystal's request, or reject it:

If he rejects the proposal, then Barack Obama owns Afghanistan: If it goes south on us — which it likely will; it’s hard to believe that even President B.O. thinks Joe Biden is a better military strategist than a four-star general who has actually fought — if we end up retreating, if the Taliban makes great gains there and in Pakistan, if al-Qaeda returns to the Taliban-held territory… then everybody in the country blames Obama for losing the war.

The problem, of course, is that to accept the proposal is to enrage his radical Leftist anti-war base, and that could have a disastrous effect on Democrat re-election efforts in 2010. Speaking of McChrystal's recommendation, he actually wanted 50,000 new troops, and that number was watered down for political reasons before it even got to the White House. Obama's top number of 40,000 is actually the bare minimum that McChrystal said was needed in order to have a shot at victory in Afghanistan.

Unfortunately, as we indicated before, it appears that Obama is going to surrender. Here's another big indicator:

Obama’s developing strategy on the Taliban will “not tolerate their return to power,” the senior official said in an interview with The Associated Press. But the U.S. would fight only to keep the Taliban from retaking control of Afghanistan’s central government — something it is now far from being capable of — and from giving renewed sanctuary in Afghanistan to al-Qaida, the official said…

Bowing to the reality that the Taliban is too ingrained in Afghanistan’s culture to be entirely defeated, the administration is prepared, as it has been for some time, to accept some Taliban role in parts of Afghanistan, the official said. That could mean paving the way for Taliban members willing to renounce violence to participate in a central government — though there has been little receptiveness to this among the Taliban. It might even mean ceding some regions of the country to the Taliban…

Obama kept returning to one question for his advisers: Who is our adversary, the official said.

Translation:

In other words, rather than eat crap by forthrightly admitting he’s prepared to abandon huge swaths of the country to Islamist fascists rather than invest another 40,000 troops, he’s going to create an artificial distinction between the Taliban and Al Qaeda to let him save face by claiming he’s focused on “the real enemy.” Much like how he was focused during the campaign on “the good war” in Afghanistan rather than “the bad war” in Iraq. I wonder how long it’ll be before he decides that not everyone who’s in Al Qaeda is an enemy either — or, better yet, that AQ’s been “substantially defeated” or something, which has been the unstated thrust of all those WH-leaked pieces in the press lately about how weak Bin Laden’s gang has become. Why, I’ll bet in a year or so we’ll be told that they’re so weak that we can start pulling out of Afghanistan altogether. Things sure have improved over there since Bush was president, huh?

Since when is the Taliban not the enemy? No matter how the war started, they've been killing American troops for several years now, so I'd say we have a significant beef with them, no matter what Obama says in order to generate political cover. Even worse, he's allowing for them to be involved in the Afghanistan government?? What kind of braindead moron is he? And does he not realize that to do so would be to erase everything that American troops have accomplished there since 2003?

Clearly not.

Not surprisingly, troop morale is plummeting:

"How to kill a Great Nation and Its Military in 9 Easy Months,"
By Barack Hussein Obama.
As Told By Bill Ayers

Chapter I: Crushing an Economy

Chapter II: Standing With Dictators While Democracy Protesters Die in the Street

Chapter III: How to Kill Troop Morale

President Umm's indecisiveness is killing troop morale.
The Times Online reported:

American soldiers serving in Afghanistan are depressed and deeply disillusioned, according to the chaplains of two US battalions that have spent nine months on the front line in the war against the Taleban.

Many feel that they are risking their lives — and that colleagues have died — for a futile mission and an Afghan population that does nothing to help them, the chaplains told The Times in their makeshift chapel on this fortress-like base in a dusty, brown valley southwest of Kabul.

“The many soldiers who come to see us have a sense of futility and anger about being here. They are really in a state of depression and despair and just want to get back to their families,” said Captain Jeff Masengale, of the 10th Mountain Division’s 2-87 Infantry Battalion.

“They feel they are risking their lives for progress that’s hard to discern,” said Captain Sam Rico, of the Division’s 4-25 Field Artillery Battalion. “They are tired, strained, confused and just want to get through.” The chaplains said that they were speaking out because the men could not.

This may be disgraceful, but what did we expect from a man who claimed U.S. troops were 'air-raiding villages and killing civilians'?

The final insult is, of course, typical Obama:

U.S. military officials have told CBS News that Iran is sending money and weapons onto the Afghan battlefield. But U.S. commanders are not allowed to comment publicly and it's unclear to them what the U.S. strategy is for dealing with Iran's increasingly deadly involvement.

Barack the Silencer strikes again.

Barack Obama is doing tremendous damage to this nation in many ways.

There's my two cents.



Related Reading:
CBS's Afghan correspondent tears Obama's Taliban strategy to shreds
Obama didn't know COIN meant more troops
Obama isn't a President but he plays one