According to iCasualties, Ninety-nine US troops have died in Afghanistan since General Stanley McChrystal sent his most recent request for forces. And now, with the Afghan election behind us for good or ill, it’s time for the president to get off the pot:
Obama administration officials had suggested that a decision on American troop levels should be withheld until Afghanistan’s runoff election was over. But now that Karzai’s challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, has dropped out of the race and handed the election over to Karzai for another five-year term, lawmakers are urging the U.S. president to finalize his overhaul of America’s war strategy.
“Now that it is clear that President Karzai will remain in office, the White House has no further pretext for delaying the decision on giving General McChrystal the resources he needs to achieve our goals in Afghanistan,” Boehner said in a statement Monday. “There are no more excuses.”
Though a fizzled runoff in Afghanistan was not the outcome the White House wanted, administration officials held to their slow-and-steady approach to reviewing war policy when questioned about Abdullah’s exit on Sunday. Senior Adviser David Axelrod said Obama would make a decision “within weeks,” and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday that a strategy decision will be made in the “coming weeks.”
Whatever political or strategic advantage the administration thought it could gain by “deliberating” over the strategy their hand-picked general has offered, the time for dithering has to be coming to a close, one way or the other.
This is getting ridiculous.
Obama and his minions must be pissed–damned inconsiderate of Abdullah wasn’t it?–accidentally ripping off Obamas’ fig leaf and emasculating his dithering self for all to see…but that’s what you get when one hitches ones’ star to the gods of deviousness…the risk that
those far more experienced in that
area than one’s self, and with their own agenda in mind, will perfidiously reveal ones’ obfuscation for what it truly is.
I mean, Karzi wants that aid NOW. Does anyone REALLY think Abdullah withdrew out of the kindness of his heart and a patriotic desire for unity?
I’d like to compare Abdullahs’ Swiss bank account balance pre-election withdrawal with it’s post-election withdrawal level. Isn’t Obama aware that Afghans practically invented the rag-trading markets? Only one of the most cut-throat trades on the globe…
If any of us believes that Obama was really holding off on making a decision for the outcome of the Afghan election – I have several lovely bridges in CT to sell.
Seriously, I hate to think that our President continues to leave our warriors twisting in the wind while he plays golf and participates in endless photo-ops at their expense but…
What else are we to believe?
He was handing out candy the other night…with the WH photogs close at hand.
My will to not use “impolite” terms regarding the President is about to the breaking point, even when I realized good leadership gets more done using polite words to communicate the issue, and resorting to Chief generally didn’t win the day (even if you felt better afterwards).
The Won has three options:
1) play to his base, declare defeat, blame Bush, pull out
2) win the “necessary and just war” by providing the necessary and required level of effort
3) vote present, throw a few more men and women into the meat grinder and suffer a bloody defeat (of course, blame Bush), which is tantamount to murder of our troops.
Wanna guess which option the imPOTUS will choose?
3! Send my winning in small, unmarked euros….I hear the dollar is fast becoming valuable only for t paper….hey and watch for per gallon prices to jump about 10-15 cents in the next few days (as a result of the out of control spending in DC)
Xformed makes a very salient point. In the 70′s we inflated the money supply something like 15%. You might remember those years as 18% interest in home loans as the Fed tried to siphon off that excess cash and return to a strong dollar policy.
In the past year we’ve inflated the money supply over 100%. Ponder what it will take in interest rates and inflation to remove that excess cash. One might do well to consider euros or precious metals and such at this point in time.
– Max
Come on guys, you can do better than that. Doncha know it’s all Bush’s fault?
Its getting harder and harder to see how the President’s personal popularity holds up. I guess if you ignore his actions (or in this case lack thereof) he seems like such a charming fellow. Your wallet might get lifted or, if you have ever crossed him your back might have a knife firmly implanted in it, but he sure has a winning smile….
Too bad the charm offensive doesn’t play well with the enemy.
Do any of you folks know what a “rubber gun” is? It’s an old and storied weapon used by small Southern boys in their fierce fights in the cooling twilights of our silky Southern nights. It doesn’t injure, but it smarts quite nicely. I’m going to ask my husband to make me one. I probably will need it in the months ahead.
He’d be happy to tell you gentlemen and ladies, if you want to know how to make one.
Marianne
Do you mean a slingshot? I don’t know if I’d want to get shot with that. Now, OTH, a rubber band gun would go over well. Used one a time or two on my younger siblings who didn’t take it very well. I did manage to hide long enough for my mother to calm down enough so i could go home again.
Just no sense of humor.
Seriously, they sell the things at flea marets in my neck of the western NC woods.
Is that a member of the rubber band gun family, that uses bands cut from bike inner tubes?
“Ridiculous”… I like that word. http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/ridiculous
I believe it fits, just right.
That’s it, Scott the Badger … Down here, the junior gun nuts even make ‘machine’ rubber guns, which will fire off 6 – 10 or some other number without reloading. The advantage of rubber guns is, you can make them at home, polish your shooting skills on other macho young persons and nobody gets injured. Stung, maybe, but not injured enough for a law suit. Works for big dogs illegally off leash. Don’t know if it would work for wandering mountain lions. But I’ll bet it would work more effectively than spitballs for annoying politicians. Although annoying politicians don’t have much sense of proportion and perhaps I would have to spend the night in the stinky slammer.
Maybe I’ll tell Downs I don’t need one after all. I do have my house gun anyway.
Marianne
In dealing with the aftermath of the recent Karzai victory I just read where Obama made a big deal about how the Afghan government needs to get serious about corruption to gain legitimacy.
In recounting the scolding Obama gave Karzai by telephone Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stated,
“Nobody has ever made the accusation that credibility was going to be had simply out of one election,”.
I wonder if he was talking about his boss….