[...] situation and to realize that Karzai he would “fix” it so that he would be reelected.[floppingaces.com] Obama has certainly been referencing Afghanistan and the need to shore up the situation since [...]

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Great piece. I am going to link back to you tomorrow.

Mike

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[...] 3. Withdrawal from Iraq (thanks to Bush) 4. De-escalation of war in Afghanistan (campaigned that it was the necessary war and now dithers as more American soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan this year, than in [...]

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This post updated with the following addition, from Michael Barone:

“War of necessity” versus “war of choice” was a meme you heard a lot from Democrats when George W. Bush was president, and one you’re not likely to hear if Obama decides not to fight the “war of necessity” in the way the general he carefully selected says is necessary. Another meme we often heard was that we should rely more on military help from our allies. The argument was that Bush had so antagonized our allies that we were not getting from them military assistance which could have reduced the number of American military personnel in Iraq or Afghanistan.

This meme never made much sense. We had more than 30 allies providing military assistance in Iraq at some time or another, and the operations in Afghanistan have long been a NATO rather than just an American exercise. The problem is that not many of our allies can provide very much, quantitatively, in military assistance. Britain and France have significant out-of-area military forces, and other nations have provided very effective troops—Poland and Australia, Italy and Canada come to mind. But not in huge numbers. My guesstimate is that the United States has something like 50 or 60 percent of the out-of-area military capacity in the world, depending on what aspects of military force you are talking about. Moreover, some nations impose very restrictive rules of engagement on their militaries, as Germany has in Afghanistan for instance. It’s great to have the support of other nations, but there are limits on what they can do. Britain has been a stalwart ally in Afghanistan, and despite problems there its Foreign Secretary David Milliband is calling for more troops there. But Canada will be withdrawing its troops.

So it’s been interesting to see that in the debate over what should be done in Afghanistan, none of the Democrats opposed to sending more U.S. troops seem to be saying we should be getting troops from our allies instead. With George W. Bush gone, with the limits of what other nations can do painfully apparent, with the realization (the latest lesson was delivered at Copenhagen by the International Olympic Committee) that the charm of Barack Obama does not overwhelm all other considerations in other nations’ decisions, the cry of “more help from the allies” is no longer heard. Like the distinction between “wars of choice” and “wars of necessity,” it was never a serious argument but just an example of cheap partisan rhetoric.

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Thank Goodness, His “O”lliness has finally decided to send reinforcments to Afghanistan:
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/release_obama_guantanamo/2009/09/28/265711.html

This should keep those pesky American infidels busy!

I do not want to see my son or nephew deploy here or anywhere under this POS POTUS.

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[...] Flopping Aces: A Brief Timeline of President Obama’s Benchmark Statements on the “War of Necessity” [...]

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Afghanistan, Then And Now…

Candidate Obama in 2008 on Afghanistan: “Losing is not an option”:
embedded by Embedded VideoYouTube Direkt

During that period, as another video highlights, Obama blasted McCain and Bush “For Taking Their Eye Off The Ball In Afghan…

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Allahpundit at Hot Air linked to this post and also had the following video of then candidate Obama describing the steps he would take to win in Afghanistan:

Allahpundit also linked to a column by Richard Cohen:

The trouble with Obama is that he gets into the moment and means what he says for that moment only. He meant what he said when he called Afghanistan a “war of necessity” — and now is not necessarily so sure.

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Excellent, W. Excellent.

Thanks.

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Outstanding report!

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