Everyone I have talked to within my circle of friends has had stomach aches since Obama’s announcement Tuesday that he will escalate the war in Afghanistan. He is sending in 30,000 more young men and women who’s lives are the fodder for another attempt to end terrorism from the inaccessible mountains of this war torn county.

Then today I read in the Wall Street Journal, Opinion section “Obama Can Win in Afghanistan” by Karl Rove. Karl Rove!

“If the president keeps his nerve, he’ll get the country’s support.”

“Obama’s speech Tuesday night,” he says, “deserves to be cheered.”

He helped himself to generous helpings of criticism as well, from failing to heed his top General, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, to not making Bush like shoot-from-the-hip decisions, and of course of Obama’s manners:

“Mr. Obama missed a chance for a grace note when, finally acknowledging the success of the Iraq surge, he couldn’t admit he was wrong to oppose it or bring himself to praise President George W. Bush for ordering it. And in a bow to his party’s antiwar fringe, Mr Obama wrung his hands over the economy and domestic concerns, which came across as out of place in a foreign policy speech”

Is the world spinning the wrong direction? The Right is ecstatic and Obama has given them all the reason to feel that way.

There are a few left still trying to answer the hard questions, like John Kerry, who in the same Opinion section (smaller easy to miss piece)

“We Should Have Captured bin Laden” states that the report produced by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the failed effort to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, never suggested more troops were necessary to capture bin Laden eight years ago, and was clear that soldiers and Marines in Afghanistan at the time were capable of launching a successful assault on Tora Bora and asked for the orders to do so. In other words in doesn’t take 30,000 more soldiers to do the job! Read the report, http://foreign.senate.gov [pdf].

What happened to the Barack Obama who’s change we could believe in? He is firmly inside the box, and all the political analysis from those willing to think of constructive ways to solve difficult international problems, as well as those out and out screaming, have gone unheeded. We are once again headed for more dead innocents and more terror in everyone’s hearts and minds.

I am discouraged, but still looking for ways to make Peace.

Ruth

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704107104574571852549048542.html#printMode

Print PDF