Depressing Observation

21 October 2009

On Monday night, I had the fortune to attend the Chargers – Broncos football game in San Diego with my son. The stadium was full and the atmosphere electric as in any similar situation.

As the game progressed, the public address announcer gave the attendance for the game and the number was just over 68,000 people. I don’t know the stadium capacity, but by the fans reaction, it appeared that the game was a sell out.
But for me, whose mind and thoughts have been pretty much occupied by the single concern about my son’s pending deployment to Afghanistan; the announcement triggered a chilling observation: the number of people attending this Monday night football game was equal to the total number of American troops currently in Afghanistan.

I looked around at the stands and immediately in my mind I felt that as much as from the point of view of a game attendance it appeared to be impressive, from the point of view of operation and safety in a belligerent country slightly smaller than the state of Texas, 68,000 was not that impressive.

Contemplation of the indecisiveness on the part of Obama over the conduct of the war in Afghanistan is disturbing. While I always had a lot of commiseration for the Commander-in-Chief who had to make the painful decision to send America’s best into harm’s way, I have no such inclination in the case of Obama. His lack of experience and his political pandering is all I see in his conduct.
Call me cynical, but there has not been any inclination from this man to have any interest in what happens to our men and women in combat, in Iraq or Afghanistan outside of the political significance of their use. The “good war” of campaign times is not good anymore, as the fringe Left is calling in their favors to Obama.
And today, Obama is using the elections debacle in Afghanistan to prolong the stalling of any meaningful decision about something, the Gen. McChrystal report, which is not at all connected to the political vicissitudes in Kabul.

And the latest piece of news coming out of the White House certainly adds to the uneasiness over Afghanistan: John Kerry, Massachusetts senator, appears to be tasked by the administration to take a more prominent role in the conduct of the war. This is the man who promptly trashed Vietnam Veterans in order to promote his political career.

God watch over our troops!

And these are my thoughts!
Frank “Semperpapa”