The Sunshine Empire

I really don’t know how to feel about President Obama’s troop escalation in Afghanistan. I remember on the afternoon of September 11th 2001 saying to my grandfather that I would be satisfied with nothing less than a full scale invasion of Afghanistan. I’ve supported the war there even while being diametrically opposed to the pointless diversion in Iraq. But as many questions as I had before George W. Bush’s Iraq surge, I have to honestly review Surge Two: Electric Boogaloo with the same skepticism.

President Obama’s speech to the nation in front of an auditorium full of West Point cadets was a good, measured, respectful speech. I thought it was an average performance at the beginning when he set the stage as to why the United States was in Afghanistan in the first place, and how Iraq had taken our eye off the ball. His performance got better as he went along and he had a marvelous finish, but there were still questions left unanswered. The main conservative question after the speech was why you would crouch the war as a vital importance, but then announce that regardless we’re getting out in 2011. They rightly point that the Bush Administration didn’t negotiate the status of forces agreement until after the Iraq war surge and the dip in violence. I agree on the surface but one needs only review the speech again to see that he merely put the corrupt Afghan administration on notice that they would not be able to count on us forever. He states quite clearly that a pullout would be dependent on the situation on the ground. When listening to the speech I noticed the President mocked anyone who would argue that we should just “muddle through” this conflict. The President’s adversary in the 2008 election, while arguing for more time in Iraq, had said on the record that we would have to “muddle through” Afghanistan. I thought this had to be a subtle dig at McCain, and after reading that the Arizona senator personally challenged him in a meeting earlier about his withdrawal date I know it was.

As to the main liberal question, I cant get past is why are we there now and will be in the future? We seem to be supporting a regime that stole an election with the same awkward obviousness as the regime in Iran. By many accounts there are roughly 100 al Qeada operatives left in Afghanistan, yet I have no desire to see our sacrifices wasted by seeing the Taliban come back into power. I don’t necessarily feel that it’s automatic that al Qeada would return to its privileged position in Afghanistan if the Taliban returned, but that’s beside the point. I don’t think the President really made the case as to why we need to be there in the future, or how exactly the extra forces would further that goal. That being said, Roland Martin made the point on CNN that the speech was probably an explanation as to why we need to be there and not the how to.

The comparison in terms of media coverage between CNN and Fox News was the most amusing portion of the evening. President Obama didn’t say much that was unexpected leading into the speech, but the contrast between the two news networks was striking. For CNN’s post speech coverage a panel of political analysts of both parties was sitting opposite reporters who have all been on the ground in Afghanistan. For Fox News’ truncated coverage all they saw fit to bring on were three conservatives columnists. Normally you would think that Fox News would be thrilled with a war escalation speech. But watching a network that has called itself the opposition to Obama have to deal with a subject that most of it’s pundits agree with the President on was hilarious. They offered parsed praise basically amounting to, “well we kinda-sorta agree with him barely but he still sucks.” On CNN there were Democrats offering criticism of the plan and Senator Lindsey Graham offering evenhanded honest praise. Yet still Republican pundits seemed to again be flummoxed by finding themselves on the same side of an issue as someone they have demonized. The CNN Republicans seemed to feel they liked the speech but didn’t like the way he gave it.

The one thing I take out of this speech from Obama is that there is a faint glimmer in the distance of an actual end of this long decade of war. With Iraq winding down and at least a semblance of an endgame in Afghanistan, it offers hope this disastrous and difficult period in American history may give way to a different kind of decade to come. One can only hope and pray, because more hardship is ahead, and we are surging again.

Related posts:

1. Afghanistan Now Suddenly Not The Cool War
2. Obama One Step Forward And Two Steps Back So Far
3. McCain Ensures Safe Obama Iraq Trip
4. George W. Bush Cuts And Runs
5. Colin Powell Endorses Obama For Revenge Not Race