He can make a decision. He has chosen to delay giving one rather than make a rash, poor one like his predecessor often did. None of the options presented had a true exit strategy. Obama is sending messages here. He's telling the corrupt Karzai government that he aren't going to be here forever. His warlords are letting the US fight their enemies, the Taliban, while they make huge profits in opium. The troops are going to come with a new plan that's not going to make Karzai happy. Meanwhile the hard-core Taliban that supports and aids Al Qaida have been joined by thousands of young Muhajadeen insurgents who are simply fighting foreign occupiers like they always have done and because they have nothing else to do. It's distracting the troops from the fight against the hard-core Taliban and Al Qaida and drawing us into another foreign guerilla civil war that we can't get involved in. More troops alone simply won't solve this problem. Even McCrystal has stated that a change in strategy must be accomplished. It takes troops and a better counter-insurgency policy. It wasn't the surge that improved things in Iraq, it was the surge combined with Petraeus' new strategy of engaging the Sunni tribal chiefs and turning them against the insurgency. This is what will be needed in Afghanistan. More troops and a strategy that divides the guerillas from the people instead of driving them together by simply shooting the place up. This has always been the formula for fighting guerillas. It takes the carrot and the stick. On can never run down and kill all of the guerillas, they are self replenishing. But one can deprive them of support, intelligence, recruits, and hiding in plain sight by making the towns and villages unfriendly to them. The young men need to find it more interesting and profitable to open a hardware store or a grocery in a safe village than to join the holy fight against the invaders. Meanwhile the covert Special Ops and CIA drone missile attacks can continue to focus on Al Qaida targets.
Too bad that attitude doesn't extend to Healthcare reform and stimulus spending. He's also telling Iran, Russia, North Korea and China that he's a big pussy.
I will agree with you that Health care did not have to be done this year. Too much on his platter already inheriting two wars and a recession. He's telling them that he's smarter than the last guy.
I wouldn't use Bush as a measuring stick for how smart he is. Being smarter than Bush isn't a major accomplishment. Plus him telling anyone that he is smarter than Bush doesn't mean anything, because he is yet to prove it. Let him come back and tell us how smart he is after he actually accomplishes something worth talking about. So far he has looked like a fish out of water, lots of lip movement and little action.
maybe they attacked the health care thing this year because they are scared they won't control the senate and house next year.
One of the main themes of his campaign for over a year was how he could handle the Iraq/Afghanistan situations much better than Bush. He has now also had almost a year in office, and he still can't come up with a decision on what to do? Two years and still no clue? If Obama was on a tv game show called are you smarter than a Bush I think at the conclusion of the show he would have to face the camera and answer NO!
Why? not because you should go to jail, but because it untrue, unreasonable and inflammatory. you have crossed the "wacko" line. it did have to be done if anything was ever to be done. i get why people may not want anything to be done, but i cant get why they dont understand the political urgency. Dems (and even a conservate prez) have been trying to get universal hc since FDR.
