Charles Krauthammer’s Conservative Political Criticism of the Commander in Chief Parallels My Centrist One ─ The President Has Put Himself in an Untenable Strategic Position at the Expense of Other People’s Lives

© 2010 Peter Free

 

01 October 2010

 

When the Political Right and Center Agree regarding Afghanistan, the Commander in Chief Has Blown It

 

I have been of the few who thought the war in Afghanistan was a strategy mistake from the beginning.  So I welcome agreement on aspects of the Commander in Chief’s miserable performance regarding Afghanistan from thoughtful conservatives like Charles Krauthammer.

 

Today ─ apparently prompted by revelations in Bob Woodward’s book, Obama’s Wars─ Mr. Krauthammer observed that the President had sent 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, simultaneously announcing a withdrawal date:

 

What kind of commander in chief sends tens of thousands of troops to war announcing in advance a fixed date for beginning their withdrawal? One who doesn't have his heart in it. One who doesn't really want to win but is making some kind of political gesture. One who thinks he has to be seen as trying but is preparing the ground -- meaning, the political cover -- for failure.

 

One can only conclude that Obama now thinks Afghanistan is a mistake. Maybe he thought so from the very beginning. More charitably and more likely, he is simply a foreign policy novice who didn't understand what this war was about until being given the authority and duty to conduct it -- and then decided it was all a mistake.

 

Fair enough. But in that case, what is he doing escalating it?

 

"He is out of Afghanistan psychologically," says Woodward of Obama. Well, he may be out, but the soldiers he ordered to Afghanistan are in.

 

Some will not come home.

 

© 2010 Charles Krauthammer, Why is Obama sending troops to Afghanistan?, Washington Post A21 (01 October 2010)

 

There is a reason for the Weinberger-Powell Doctrine ─ the Commander in Chief was too inexperienced, arrogant, or cynical to appreciate it

 

Was is not a half-baked thing to wage.  That is why the Weinberger - Powell Doctrine exists.

 

Intelligently instigated armed conflict requires a plan aimed at achieving realistic strategic goals.

 

That the President did not see this in 2008, and continues to act as if he does not understand it, discredits him as a commander of substance.