War And Domestic Politics

Yesterday the U. K. Telegraph posted an article on President Obama’s speech last week on his plans for the war in Afghanistan.  The article pointed out that the President was ignoring the advice of his generals in order to do bring home the troops before the 2012 election.  What the withdrawal timetable spelled out by President Obama means is that we will not have the full number of forces in Afghanistan during this fighting season and we will have a very limited number of troops there in the second half of the next fighting season.  President Obama preivously committed in 2009 to remain for two Afghan fighting seasons.  I believe he has broken faith with his generals, America’s allies who are helping us in this effort, and the Afghan people. 

The sad part of this is that many of the Republican candidates for President have signed on to this plan.  I think we are endangering our troops by drawing down their numbers prematurely.  We have a military comprised of awesome people, I hope they will be able to perform the miracle that will be needed to make this plan work.