Obama’s bum speech

There was literally nothing I was interested in watching or new on TV last night so I ended up watching Obama’s speech. I think he tried hard but came up woefully short. The speech TOTUS showed him tried to just do too many things, many of them contradictory, all at once. First he took time to rightfully point out how important and necessary our involvement in Afghanistan was, so he gets kudos for that. He of course took a dig at Iraq though, showing how he either lacks the understanding of why the that strategic shift from Afghanistan to Iraq was made, or simply showing the craven political motivations of a group of people that always talks a big talk but never do anything.

By now even the dumbest people should have realized that shifting the GWoT from Afghanistan to Iraq gave us a much better chance to defeat al Qaeda and other radicalized Islamic death cults, dealing their operations arm a massive blow by crushing them militarily, but even more importantly, by turning public opinion against them and what they stand for, as well as reshape one of the regions most dangerous and despotic nations. Not to mention that it gave us a major ally right next to Iran which is hell bent on destabilizing the Middle East for their own gain and getting support from others that also stand to profit from $300 dollars per barrel oil. Fighting in Afghanistan on the other hand comes with a completely different set of dynamics, at a much greater cost all things being equal, and with much less geopolitical and other kinds of benefits to the US or the world. Even Obama has gotten this I think, which makes his dig about Iraq seem petty if not outright shamefully stupid. But he had to throw a bone out to the BDS infected idiots that comprise his base, and making a dig about Bush or Iraq, even when the left was proven wrong, works.

For now he is bucking the radical idiots that think if you walk away from a war others have declared on you they will also walk away too, and actually going to up the ante somewhat. He is committing 30K troops and doing so to help get the Afghani military, police, and other security forces up to speed to do their won work, just like Bush did in Iraq (hey! Bush must be a genius if Obama is doing the same). The problem is how he ended that sentence about committing the troops to a fight he himself has said is critical and of vital interest to the Us, with national security implications across the region and the globe:

Barack Obama is to set an ambitious timetable for the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, with the first troops pulling out by July 2011. The announcement is aimed at countering US public fears that the country is being sucked into a Vietnam-style morass.

My response was WTF? You tell the enemy and your allies when you plan to bail? Why would the Afghani people take a risk, volunteer to join the military or police force, only to have the US abandon them in 18 months or so whether they are ready or not? And what do you think was al Qaeda or the Taliban’s reaction to this? You think they said “oh shit, we have to deal with 18 more months of these people beating us up”, or “Woo-hoo, the cowards are going to bail and all we have to do is hold out for a measly 18 months”? No wonder all these people with anti-US agendas pined for Obama to win the election. And the implications of this dumb move has consequences that extend way beyond just Afghanistan. Nobody should take US commitments seriously after something like this. Why should any NATO member contribute anything to this effort if we plan to leave anyway in 18 months? And the other Middle Easter countries were just put on alert that they have a better chance that Israel will do the hard work for them than the US. Iran take our demands seriously? Get real!

Now I am sure the leftists will come out of the woodwork and defend this idiotic idea of a deadline with the concept that the Afghanis have wasted 8 years already and are not taking us seriously without this kind of commitment, and I am inclined to call bullshit and point out this is just an exit strategy excuse used by those that thing we should just leave. The reason things are taking longer in Afghanistan is precisely why we moved the focus of the GWoT from there to Iraq in the first place. But if we leave Afghanistan unfinished we will be back there sooner than later, at a much higher cost – another 9-11 style attack, or even worse, one with WMDs – to us than staying the course would be. Then again, with a weak ass loser like the current presidents calling the shots, it might behoove us to incur this cost anyway just to avoid the unnecessary deaths of our troops that will be followed by a cut and runs strategy anyway. Then again, since the left considers the military to be the enemy anyway, I understand why they don’t mind wasting their efforts.