Finally, Charles Krauthammer has said what I’ve thought all along: that the “Afghanistan is the ‘good war’” mantra that the Left repeated for years and that TGL repeated with almost believable sincerity throughout his campaign and has reiterated in his presidency, is a deeply cynical position that has no real meaning as a moral position among liberals and Democrats.
Barack has gone out on a limb on this one. He has doubled down on the war in Afghanistan- and to give the administration its due, they have blown up a couple of really bad guys- but it’s getting harder. Lotsa casualties.
This creates a circular problem: if many people are like me, we don’t believe that the president means what he says. We don’t believe that he can lead and inspire the troops to fight the “good war.” And we don’t really believe he understands war well enough to lead well. This becomes a huge morale problem, not only for the military, but for the country. My own belief is that the reason GWB invested so much in Iraq was that there were aspects of Iraqi society that we could identify with: a middle class, biblical references, a truly bad guy at the top. Afghanistan is different, worlds away, a literacy rate in the low double digits and an intractable “culture of poverty,” as the new catch phrase has it.
On Special Report tonight, Mort Kondracke said that Obama was completely sincere about “winning” the “good war.” In the biggest fight I’ve ever seen between him and Charles K., Charles said, “He can’t even utter the word ‘victory.’ How can he even understand what that will take if he can’t say the word?”
Comments 8
I’m not sure why Kondracke is so convinced that TGL was sincere. The only reason I believe he and the Dems rallied around Afghanistan is because it was “not Iraq. It was an opportunity for them to say that this was the real war and that Bush had taken his eye off the ball.
In terms of strategic location and value in the region between Iraq and Afghanistan, there’s no contest. Iraq has a good bit of oil and it gives the US a staging area to monitor events in the region. Afghanistan has neither.
August 10th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Sometimes the lunacy just bubbles over.
Howard, give your spleen a break. Not everybody who doesn’t agree with you has to be portrayed as dishonest or stupid on every issue.
The next time an organization based in Iraq vows to fight us endlessly and sends people to NY to blow us up, let us know.
August 10th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
You’re right, fuster, sometimes the lunacy does just bubble over. Obama has lied repeatedly. Why would any sane person give him the benefit of the doubt on any subject. (I guess I just my own question.)
As to the rest of your response, it’s just inane piffle, which I won’t be bothering myself with.
August 10th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
@Howard Portnoy – Read what you wrote, Howard.
You didn’t confine yourself to saying that Obama wasn’t to be trusted, you said that the Democrats were dishonestly and/or stupidly supporting “the other war”.
August 10th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
Note that Afghanistan didn’t become the ‘good war’ until the resumption of war in Iraq. Prior to that, the chattering classes did nothing but wail and rend their garments (dripping crocodile tears all over their missives) over the insurmountable difficulties of fighting in Afghanistan.
August 10th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
@aelfheld – Give me not the stereotypes about the chatterers, nor tell me of either side of the fringe.
Leave it to Howard to demonize the Dems and exclude the middle.
There are actual non-Zombified people with non-ABnormal brains who call themselves Democrats and who find it rational to support stomping AQ and company.
Some of these very people were in government service,supporting the Afghan war, before Iraq and during Iraq, and will remain open to stomping AQ and Co.
August 10th, 2009 at 11:52 pm
fuster, by repeating the same fundamental error over and over, you are coming dangerously close to being added to my “Ignore” list of commenters (which I just created this second and of which you are the only potential candidate). Namely, you miss the point — deliberately, I believe, so that you can play devil’s advocate. Which, btw, you are doing a worse and worse job of.
I said nothing about the middle. I said “Obama and the dems,” referring quite obviously to his abetters during the campaign, who mouthed the same fiction that Afghanistan was the real war.
I am not contending that there was never a war worth pursuing in Afghanistan. No do I think all Democrats are stupid and/or wrong — just you and the Obamanauts. And don’t give me that crap about how you’re the lone sane voice at this site. You sound increasingly like a teenager who’s testing his limits.
My advice to you is STOP.
August 11th, 2009 at 11:10 am
“… a deeply cynical position that has no meaning among as a moral position among liberals and Democrats. ”
If I fail to see the distinction here between those Obamanauts you mention and the other Democrats it’s not because I’m being cynical or insincere.
August 11th, 2009 at 11:27 am