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Paul Greenberg
"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed."
--A. Lincoln
Thanks to Bob Woodward, the
Talk about a feeling of deja vu: The grim picture painted by General Stanley McChrystal sounds much like the one that faced the previous commander-in-chief in Iraq back in 2006, when defeat seemed not only in prospect but already in process.
That president and commander-in-chief had a choice: (a) accept defeat, which would of course be called an orderly withdrawal, or (b) stake all on a new strategy and new troops to carry it out with no guarantee of success.
Heeding the counsel of a general named Petraeus, and a couple of maverick senators named McCain and
It succeeded, lest we forget, at no little sacrifice. The military funerals here in Arkansas alone testify to the cost of that success. Now, unless the fruits of that Surge are frittered away, Iraq may complete the transformation from sad debacle to one more victory in this long, long war on terror, or whatever it is now called in Washington well-appointed offices far removed from the dust, din and blood of battle.
Now another president faces another momentous decision, this time in a war Barack Obama used to say had to be won. Faced by declining support for that war, the new president is sending mixed signals. Yes, he's already dispatched fresh troops to Afghanistan, but he has yet to endorse any new strategy there, let alone the one being recommended by the new American commander.
And while this president dithers, support for the war ebbs. The same sort of senators who opposed the Surge in Iraq -- there was a time when Barack Obama was among them -- can be counted on to find excuses for not supporting a bold new strategy in Afghanistan. And when politicians are looking for a way to dodge a decision that could prove as unpopular as it is necessary, any excuse will do.
Case in point: Carl Levin, the senator from Indecision, who would prefer to hand the war off to the Afghans themselves. Who wouldn't? Unfortunately, it's more than clear that Afghanistan's flailing government and still nascent army are far from ready to shoulder that responsibility.
If the president is looking for more realistic counsel, he might consult with someone like Ike Skelton, who represents the dwindling old Harry Truman-Scoop Jackson wing of the
"Now is not the time to lose our resolve. We must give our forces the time and resources they need to show progress in the fight against the enemies responsible for the attacks of 9/11." He might as well have been Britain's Margaret Thatcher telling another president, George Herbert Walker Bush, that now was no time to go wobbly after Saddam Hussein had seized Kuwait,
Direct, plain-spoken Ike Skelton is no Churchillian orator, and he's certainly not as articulate as Barack Obama, who can explain both sides of any thorny question, split the difference, and leave his listeners wondering only about where he's finally come down, if he has. Afghanistan is still one of those questions hanging in the balance at
If this commander-in-chief is looking for excuses to lose the war in Afghanistan, with all the strategic dangers so wobbly a course would raise for this country, its
The new American commander there now has come up with a clear if sobering assessment, and a strategy to go with it. But the word from the
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Obama Foreign Policy: Afghanistan - Uncertain Trumpet