Can You Get Some Important Work Done Now, Mr. President?

3 October 2009

Ok, the children field trip to Denmark is over. The children got to see Copenhagen, enriching their public education geography knowledge. Can the President now get some work done with the war in Afghanistan? Is there any other distraction coming up that is going to take priority over the lives of our men and women in combat and the success of the mission in Afghanistan?

According to a late Fox News poll (I know, right wing conspiracy stuff), the American public is of the opinion that our war in Afghanistan is important to keep us safe at the tune of 6 out of 10 people. Exactly, 25% feel it is extremely important and 35% think it is very important (yes, adding the two together makes 60%, not to mention the additional 27% who believes it is somewhat important, which leaves 13% who believes that the Afghanistan mission is not important for our national security or do not have an opinion).

So, I ask, isn’t it time for the war to climb up on the priority scale a little? Isn’t time for Obama to consult with Gen. McChrystal more than one teleconference or few minutes on Air Force One?

Since the White House has been deluged with criticism over Obama apparent lack of decisiveness about the request for additional troops on the ground in Afghanistan, the Obama machine has been trying to spin the whole thing, with the President finally having a meeting about it and requesting inputs from various sources. And that’s where my concerns get heightened.
Of course I expect the report of Gen. McChrystal to be scrutinized at several levels, but my fear is that the scrutiny and the rebuttal will be left in the hands of people like Ramh Emanuel and David Axelrod, more than those who really would have a clue about it aside from the political liability point of view.
Joint Chief of Staff Admiral Mullen and Gen. David Petreaus agree with the analysis McChrystal presented in his report to Obama over a month ago. Several politicians, all Republicans, are expressing their opinion in favor of a troop surge. There are those who are either against our effort or who are standing on the fence, calling for a more detailed assessment before committing more resources to Afghanistan. These are those in Congress who are up for re-election in 2010 and want to make sure they can gage their constituency leaning, postponing taking a stance until they can turn it into a political campaign slogan.

And while all these delays are used for political reasons, our Military is paying in blood for an undefined policy designed by a group of liberal incompetents. Our Service Members are sacrificing, their families at home are sacrificing, without a definite policy guiding our effort toward a victorious solution of the conflict.
Doesn’t our Military deserve at least that?

But there is another factor that continues to be disturbing to me. The Wall Street Journal is reporting on the discussions that took place in the White House Situation Room, discussions that related to some of the details of what was covered and of the positions of some of the participants including Sec of Defense Robert Gates. The WSJ also specifies that the official who divulged the details did so anonymously as he was not authorized to speak to the Media. Which brings me to two lines of thinking.
The first is that the deliberations that took place, as lame and inconclusive they may have been, became common knowledge not only to the American people and the Military, but also to our enemies. It is my opinion that any kind of strategic talks regarding our conduct in the war, should remain classified and kept out of the public knowledge. Granted that I am one of those Americans that seek to remain as informed as possible when it comes to our Military and their mission, I still believe that some of the information that is made public is detrimental to our troops, both as morale and security issues.
Any information to the Media should be coming in the form of official statements carefully designed to minimize the exposure of sensitive material that can be used by our enemies, be it tactically or in the form of propaganda.

The second thinking is that the “anonymous” type of leaks are designed and implemented for political reason. Weather from the White House or their opponents, these types of leaks are utilized to forward a political agenda. The administration may be using them to stem the flood of criticism they are receiving from increasing numbers of Americans who are finally discovering the level of incompetence of Obama and his cronies by showing that they are actually meeting in regard to Afghanistan.
Administration opponents may be using this approach to further highlight the incompetence and indecisiveness of the President and even accentuating the notion that there is really little interest on the part of Obama for anything that relates to our men and women in uniform.

Regardless of which thinking is closest to reality, I personally have great resentment for either approach, as I truly feel that the use of our Military, especially while involved in a conflict, to advance an internal political agenda is despicable. I despised the Liberals that used our Military for eight years to undermine everything that President Bush was doing, with no regard for the consequences their vitriol would have on our Forces and their families at home. I considered highly immoral when Harry Reid came out to the first microphone he could find and declared the war in Iraq as lost, just as the casualties expected from the surge of troops were increasing.
I equally consider it immoral when I hear conservatives use a similar line of thinking just because now Afghanistan is “Obama’s war”.
The troops dyeing and getting hurt in Afghanistan are NOT Obama’s troops. They are American troops and they deserve our support and especially respect, regardless of who their Commander in Chief is.

So it is time to back off the partisan truck up, allow Gen. McChrystal and Petreaus to do their job. It is time to let our so-called representatives in Washington know that we want them to stand for our troops and pressure the White House to act swiftly to assure that our troops have all they need to accomplish their mission and achieve victory. Yes VICTORY, as that is the only goal that justifies our Military’s sacrifice, regardless of what Obama says.

And these are my thoughts!
Frank “Semperpapa”