Chaos At The Daily Kos Over Afghanistan

A reader who wishes to remain anonymous tipped me off to a fascinating thread over at the Daily Kos that echoes the utter confusion of the Left on Afghanistan.

You see, despite all the caterwauling about foreign policy that we heard from the Left during the Bush years, it’s still ultimately little more than a political football to them. So now, the aimless indecision of the White House has drifted down to the activist level. And no wonder:

* During the campaign, Barack Obama “made it clear” that winning in Afghanistan was vitally important. Now, he seems much more indifferent.

* Liberals told everyone who would listen that we were wasting resources in Iraq that could better be used in Afghanistan. But, now that resources have been freed up, Obama’s hedging on sending them even though the generals say they need them to win the war.

* The poll numbers on Afghanistan seem roughly split at the moment, but that may be misleading. Whatever else may be said about Bush, he was a dogged man. He would have stayed as long as necessary and done whatever it took to win in Afghanistan, no matter what the political fallout turned out to be. If we lose in Afghanistan, how is Barack Obama, who has zero “tough guy” credibility with the public, going to look? How would the American people react to losing a war because of the personal weakness and political machinations of the man in the White House?

With all that in mind, comes a Daily Kos ad page for an anti-war show called, “Obama’s war.”

Here’s the initial post about it:

Getting online today the first thing I notice was the DKOS background and the words ‘Obama’s war’.

WTF? I beg to differ, but this is NOT Obama’s war. This is Bush’s war, plain and simple. One thing we do NOT need to be doing at this juncture is feeding into the right wing meme that this is Obama’s war. Obama is trying to clean up the mess started by Bush and his cronies at Halliburton.

I know that Obama is trying to wind this quagmire down, but that does NOT make it ‘his war’. It must suck being the only adult in the room for him, but that’s the job he applied for, and he is doing the best at it humanly possible.

I see those around here giving Obama down the road all the time, and that’s fine by me. But this ‘Obama’s War’ crap is going too far, and simply parroting FoxNews talking points.

So please, people. Let’s stay level headed about this.

This is NOT OBAMA’S WAR.

Dammit.

Because Obama is not sending a clear signal about which way he is going to go (the Left is actually much more authoritarian and centralized in thinking than the Right), the responses to this are all over the map.

Well, then it is an … (1+ / 0-)
… American war, at least until we can get out, which means that “Obama’s War” is an incorrect appellation. Thanks for proving that for the diarist.

People can demand that troops be pulled out and not put in, and they can be careful about what they call it. But, if they want to voice their right to call it “Obama’s War,” then I can call them clueless. That’s my right.

“Obama, Obama, I love ya, Obama; you’re only November away” — cute ginger kid

by Tortmaster

You can call (1+ / 0-)
it any kind of war ya want.

I sure don’t have a problem with calling it Obama’s war, since he’s the CinC, and he’s ramped it up there.

If you want to speak to the current administration, who do you go to?

by Hound Dog

Thank you (4+ / 0-)
I don’t care if it’s an ad or not, and it matters little what the overall intent is–either on the part of the site or the show itself.

But this is exactly the message it sends–that it’s “Obama’s War”, and it also makes it look like it’s something the site supports.

Disgusting. If I was really full of myself, I’d go GBCW and get lost. But nobody really knows me from adam around here anyway, so I think I’ll just get lost. This has absolutely, thoroughly disgusted me.

Necessity is the mother of revolution…

by o the umanity

Most Americans (7+ / 0-)
did support the invasion of Afghanistan. (I was not one of them). And while I agree that the execution and decision for the war was Bush’s, he no longer has power. It is Obama’s war now. Just as Viet Nam became Nixon’s war as opposed to Johnson’s – those of us who voted for Obama did so hoping he’d apply sanity to the situation – and we are not terribly comfortable with the statements coming from his White House on this nor the actions.

More drones? More civilian deaths? That’s not going to resolve this situation.

by KibbutzAmiad

Actually, Afghanistan is an American war. However, Barack Obama is the Commander-In-Chief and therefore, he’s the one ultimately responsible for winning it.

Moreover, the fact that Barack Obama is starting to take political considerations into account in fighting the war in Afghanistan may not be surprising, but it is alarming. When his generals are telling him that they need more troops to win and he’s hemming and hawing while his political handlers pore over polling data, it’s disturbing. This is a time for leadership, not a time for “voting present.”

As long as Barack Obama is doing the best he can to win in Afghanistan, Barack Obama deserves conservative support for that part of his agenda. But, if he ultimately chooses to waffle on doing what it takes to achieve victory, he should be forewarned that the criticism will be merciless and savage.

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