Obama's War

Leon Panetta recently said that the Taliban was being more aggressive at going after our troops. He also said that progress against the Taliban is being made: "We are engaged in the most aggressive operations in the history of the CIA in that part of the world, and the result is that we are disrupting their leadership." Now, I've always been a huge fan of Leon Panetta and I was a big supporter of his appointment as CIA chief. Panetta is a smart guy and has always seemed to me to be a fair, logical guy (I completely buy into the rumors that he got the hell out of the White House because he knew the Lewinsky scandal was coming and didn't want to have any part in that mess). And I understand that in his new role as CIA chief, he's gotta be somewhat mischievous and at the very least, support Obama's policies. But I really am disheartened to see that his leadership at the CIA hasn't resulted in much change in strategy towards the war on terrorism.

For so much of Bush's presidency the Iraq war was the headline. It's so unfortunate because the result of this was that the problems in Afghanistan, a war that had very little opposition (unlike the war in Iraq), was neglected. Most people agreed after September 11 that we had to go into Afghanistan and remove the Taliban. Nine years later, we are still in Afghanistan and the Taliban is only getting stronger. When will this end? Are the Americans incapable of victory? If so, if the Taliban is just too strong for American forces, then we need to admit defeat and leave. It's completely disaffecting to the American people to think that we can somehow establish never-ending conflicts in parts of the world without any hope of resolution. Have the public just resigned themselves that we will always been engaged in war and that it's ok so long as the body count is not exorbitant? What kind of a system is this? In what world is this ok?

I understand the realities of the situation and that to immediately withdraw troops is not going to happen. Both the technical logistics and public perception (not to mention the political realities) prevents this. HOWEVER, the only alternative/excuse that I hear is that we have to stay the course. I don't buy into this nonesense that things are changing in Afghanistan and that next year we're going to start withdrawing troops. As far as I can tell, the policy in Afghanistan has not changed for the better since Obama took office. And actually, I feel like it's gotten worse because his new policy calls for an escalation of troops. Panetta admitted the administration recently gave Blackwater a new contract to provide additional security in Afghanistan. BLACKWATER. You know, the company accused of money laundering, weapons smuggling, and the killing of innocent Iraqi civilians.

In 1968 Richard Nixon ran for president on the platform that he would bring the troops home and end the war in Vietnam. Up until that point, Vietnam was LBJ's war, a war blamed squarely on the Democrats. Hubert Humphrey didn't stand a chance because his party was the war-mongering party. So Nixon won but of course we all know that Nixon didn't get out of Vietnam after he was elected (or even after he was reelected!). And history has shown that as much as Vietnam has been Johnson's to blame, it also was Nixon's.

For the past year or so, a lot of liberals have made similar comparisons to the current situation with Obama in Afghanistan. I believe this oil spill will be long forgotten in two years when Obama is up for reelection and instead what will be on people's minds is Afghanistan. Is Obama going to take the bold position and actually get out of Afghanistan? Whether unpopular or not, Obama is going to have to show some real leadership sooner rather than later and I have yet to see it thus far. This fear of giving ammunition to the opposition needs to stop and instead Obama needs to put his foot down and say we cannot succeed in Afghanistan. I think he will be called a defeatist and a coward by the Republicans but ultimately it is the position that will be better for the country. We need to put an end to the unnecessary deaths that this war has caused and even if it costs Obama a second term, it's the right thing to do. I don't believe we should support Obama simply because he's a Democrat if his policies are wrong. I don't believe he should get a pass because he's on the left if his position on an issue mirrors his predecessor. Instead, he should be accountable for his own role in this mess and held responsible if he doesn't do the right thing.