No, kiddos, not by using Bush's brain, or Karl Rove, but by using his own. In sharp contrast to George W Bush, who used to sign off quickly on troop requests from his commanders without giving it much thought, Obama appears to be taking his time pondering a request by the Pentagon for three Army combat brigades and Marine units for deployment in Afghanistan.A real problem is that America has not won any of its wars in a long time and Desert Storm I was just a prelude to Desert Storm II, not because of the military which just does what it does best, but because of politicians that use it to manipulate a public that has been hammered into a crouched position with fear tactics. These are not wars, they are police actions, or rather cleaning operations in countries the US has no business being or staying in. I hope that Obama realizes that these so-called wars are undeclared and illegal acts of war. Bush went it alone (oops, forgot Poland and Palau) and Obama will have to douse the fires the Bush gang started.
That the GOP, after fanning the flames, now have adopted a strategy of obstructing Obama's efforts tells me that they're not interested in anything but playing politics at the expense of US soldiers and foreign civilians—unless one thinks we're behaving smartly and without incurring wrath by killing Muslim people—always conveniently labeled "terrorists"—by sending drones equipped with missiles from one souvereign country into another. As a video game it may seem engaging, but as a solution to the problem of extremist Islam it's contra-effective. Mind you, this all started with 3,000 people losing their lives on 9/11. Hundreds of thousands of dead later see where our politicians have taken us... Indeed, the people will have to choose for a solution, but they just did that by electing Obama. It is my hope the majority understands that the mess Bush en co. created may not be cleaned up in 4 years. The GOP's obstructionist stance is reprehensible and shameful. We may have thought that by Bush's leaving office the nation ridded itself of the effects of his brain. The crushed GOP, it turns out, while unable to even utter Bush's name, can't come up with a single constructive thought and is still using his rambling brain for its thinking...
Posts
While I personally have my doubts about even the possibility of success with the stated objective of militarily ridding Afghanistan of the Taliban, especially now that the scoundrels seem to become more active in Pakistan, the reality is that the US has a military presence there, but its activities have been hampered with inadequate troop levels, due to obligations in Iraq and minimal support from foreign nations, as the results of the Bush gang's shortsightedness.
Obama is challenged by his predecessor's ineptness to finish what he started in a way that has failure already written in big capitals into the equation. If US troops are perceived as staying too long in Afghanistan it will be served up by the Republicans in huge scoops as failure. If he gets the troops back home before scoring any big successes he will be perceived as failing to stand up to terrorism. Ultimately, his fate rests with an American public that hastily gave Bush another term to get the job done—at which he failed miserably.