Throughout yesterday, the Mainstream Media saturated the airwaves with a build-up for Obama’s big Afghan speech Curiously the build-up was devoid of suspense as we were constantly told that his decision was to send 30,000 more troops. However, the Mainstream Media (MSM) told us that this brilliant President was going to announce his strategy and so we would learn what underpinned his final and deeply considered decision.
Conservative commentators today have had little difficulty pointing out that the speech and the decisions taken by the President owe more to his political considerations than to military logic. They point out that by giving General McChrystal only a portion of the troops that he requested, Obama is manoeuvering to appease his Leftists base. The same can be said for announcing a deadline for withdrawal. All conservative commentators are feasting on the glaring contradictions and inconsistencies contained in the speech.
Obama boxed himself in back in the 2008 election campaign when he made criticism of the Bush Administration for its conduct of the war against Islamic Imperialism (our description of the war, not Bush’s!) a center-piece of his foreign policy. According to Obama at that time, the war in Iraq was unnecessary and based on manufactured evidence and had drawn resources away from the one place where the war should have been fought, i.e. Afghanistan. This argument was intended to make Obama look hawkish (to independent voters) whilst maintaining the anti-Bush invective that would appeal to the Leftists and his rich Media backers who loathed the Christian in the White House. Since Obama’s Leftist credentials had been earned over his entire lifetime, the American-haters on the Soros payroll assumed that they saw an Obama nod-and-wink. Obama’s whole election campaign was based on saying one thing to his Leftist base and another to the political center. He assumed (correctly) that the MSM would never mention his contradictions and thus enable him to face two ways at the same time. Once elected, it would be a new game, he could shed his moderate mask and the MSM would erase his past and past promises where necessary.
Since the election, Obama and his comrades in Congress have indeed set to work on their Leftist agenda and the MSM has worked heroically to aid and abet them. It has not been easy work for the MSM, since Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are what they are – intellectually shallow, humorless Party functionaries and often bumbling. Small people indeed! Since the Socialist message of Big Government, income redistribution and Internationalism has never commanded a broad following in the US, it really requires an inspiring, eloquent and intellectually qualified leader. Obama has the confidence to read a speech and that is all. The other two have only the cold ruthlessness of a Molotov. The Leftist agenda, as promoted by this Government, is now running into serious opposition, not only from conservatives but from independent voters. Still, the Media Class is still on board and probably confident that the more their agenda is implemented the easier it will be to silence the opposition.
The problem with foreign policy, as distinct from domestic policy, is that most factors are beyond the control of the Media and Government. Domestic situations are like a film set where the furniture can be moved around and the script endlessly rewritten but Iran, North Korea, Russia, China and the Muslim world are all beyond control. Whilst Obama could waffle about Afghanistan prior to the election and preen himself as a smart military strategist, the conflict with Islamic Imperialism is now his responsibility and he has no convincing strategy for it. His instincts are Leftist, based on his past associations but he does not have the ability to intellectualize these instincts. Ideally he would like Afghanistan to disappear so that he can attend to the domestic agenda now and again, and more importantly make speeches around the world apologizing for the USA. When he appointed General McChrystal to take over in Afghanistan, he was merely postponing decision-taking under the guise of looking wise. He saw only an opportunity to buy time so that he could continue to play the role of President as he sees it, which is to be a very important person. McChrystal, of course, has to be serious about a war but one wonders if he did not understand from the beginning that his Commander-in-Chief is not serious. McChrystal has proceeded on the basis that the US must win the war in Afghanistan and he has calculated that he needs a bare minimum of 40,000 more troops but more like 60,000.
As was clear from yesterday’s speech, Obama likes to say that the war in Afghanistan must be won by the USA, but he does not believe it, hence only 30,000 more troops for McChrystal together with a poison chalice. Obama is looking over his Left shoulder at his comrades and would prefer to be marching at their head rather than with McChrystal. When he looks over his Right shoulder perhaps he sees the Muslim world and considers how nice it would be to march with them. Then he looks ahead and sees the American electorate in 2010 and thus we get a speech and a strategy that contains bombast and defeatism in equal parts. He revealed no new strategy, despite 100 days of reflection. All the things he claimed to unveil are surely things that are already being done, such as trying to enlist the support of the Afghan people, encourage economic growth and improve agriculture. The stern call for an honest government and honest elections in Afghanistan is laughable from a man who has thrived in Chicago Democrat politics and who has worked for Acorn.
Uncommitted Afghanis, listening to Obama’s speech, must surely be deciding to place their bets on the ultimate victory of the Taliban and not flocking to join the Afghan police and army. Obama had two honest options and he avoided both. One was to please his Leftist base and his own instincts by announcing an immediate withdrawal timetable, but he knows this would likely mean becoming a one-term President. The other was to say that the USA would do whatever it takes to win, but this would alienate his Party’s ground troops, George Soros and most of the Media Class. He has opted for neither but has bought time for himself and his comrades in Congress. Perhaps the American troops will achieve the impossible, crush the Taliban in short time and the Pakistan Government will do the same over the long border, but it is doubtful. In the meantime, Obama can prance around the World selling global warming and reassuring America’s enemies whilst nationalizing everything at home, redistributing incomes, debasing the currency and promoting the homosexual agenda. The race is on, not in Afghanistan but in the US. Will this Government implement its revolutionary agenda before the 2010 elections? If it does it will be in a position to ensure its own re-election.
Here in central California the temperature has been dropping to the mid 30’s every night. In Houston Texas residents are shoveling snow from their drives and most of North America is shivering as winter arrives early. Once again, Al Gore is failing to deliver.