Obama Fiddles While Afghanistan Burns

Before he gets to the important business of obtaining the Olympics for Chicago, President Obama felt obligated to schmooze with his advisers for a couple of hours about one of his campaign issues. Prior to the election, he promised his acolytes and converts that he would toss out the Bush mistakes and turn his attention to fighting the good war in Afghanistan.

In between his various muggings for the camera sessions, worldwide annointings, and joining the crazy fest at the United Nations, Obama has so far talked to his commander in the field in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, exactly once in six months.

Being God made manifest is very time-consuming, so Obama's friends in the Democratic Party have covered for him. "Presidents speak through the chain of command, they don't talk regularly to their field commanders," they say. Amazing how people who have never served in the military become overnight experts on military procedure. George Bush spoke to his field commanders at length at least once a month, and showed up personally when they least expected it, in-country. It's how he made his decision to replace his prime commander in Iraq with General Petraeus, and then backed him to the hilt despite all the carping in Congress and the press. And the surge worked. In other words, Bush made a decision.

Obama hand-picked General McChrystal, and then acted as if he's a digital watch with a battery--no attention required. Just like he's done with everything else since taking office, Obama makes a glorious speech, then leaves it to others to carry the load. He's too important to be involved in details. Even his favorite war. But all is well now. He had a meeting. Meetings are good. People talk. Things get said. Everybody feels better. I'm relieved.

Obama got together with his top advisers, and proved he hasn't learned the lessons of history. Just as Johnson did with Vietnam, it's quite possible that Obama is going to let his armchair warriors and policy wonks theorize and experiment while his troops are left hung out to dry. CBS Evening News led with "the Vice President led a parade of top advisors to the White House this afternoon for what could be one of the most important meetings of the Obama presidency." Would those be the advisors who agree with Crazy Joe that we should fight the war against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan by flying drones in from the sea?

There was no summons for General McChrystal to appear in person, but he did get some say by conference phone, and his on-the-spot surrogate was Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen. Apparently, the Chiefs agree with General McChrystal that 40,000 additional troops, more or less, along with a surge strategy are needed to do the war in Afghanistan right. But they are countered by "stay the course, add the drones" advocates like National Security Advisor General Jim Jones, and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel." Since Obama seems to prefer people whose credentials are all show and no go, there is a serious danger he will side with Biden and the 60s gang.

There is even talk of reducing the overall troop strength already in place while "pursuing a smaller-scale mission focused on hunting down Al-Qaeda figures." Most top U.S. military commanders are opposed to that plan entirely. But Obama's "surrender and declare a victory" crowd on the left in Congress intends to make it very uncomfortable to do anything much that's positive.

One of Obama's flacks told the Washington Post that "the administration is asking questions about the U.S. military strategy in Afghanistan that frankly have not been asked over the last eight years." Given that most of Obama's hack advisers don't know the difference between strategy and tactics, that sounds like the beginning of another "it's all Bush's fault" scenario. For one thing, can someone tell me what possible questions could still be left unasked? We have the questions, Mr. President. You're supposed to have the answers. That's why you're the ersatz Commander in Chief. And if you don't have the answers, cancel the goddam round the world grinning tours, learn something about conducting a war, and do your job. You're not playing Candyland with your daughters, this is serious business for adults.

CNN reported with pomp and pomposity that "Obama and eighteen others on his national security team met in the heavyweight meeting in the secure Situation Room." Well, I'm glad something's secure. General Petraeus agrees with McChrystal that a form of the successful surge in Iraq must be tailored to the differing conditions in Afghanistan (a far more primitive conglomeration of warring factions with no genuine history of democratic self-government).

Both Petraeus and McChrystal agree that ultimately American boots on the ground will be far less necessary in Afghanistan--but not now. First, there must be a serious and successful military elimination of the major Al Qaeda and Taliban counterinsurgency, and an end to the easy passage from Pakistan into Afghanistan and vice versa. Meanwhile, Afghanistan must develop its own home security forces, and that is not going well at all. Obama's own Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, appears to share this view. He is very skeptical of the "counterinsurgency only" approach, and even more skeptical about the "drones over Al Qaeda" concept.

With one of the largest egos in American history, Franklin Roosevelt still knew that he had to rely on his military commanders in the field for the best possible information. And when Admiral Nimitz and General MacArthur disagreed, FDR had to make a decision. Likewise, FDR trusted his top military adviser, General Marshall, completely. Yet he regularly spoke directly to General Eisenhower, particularly prior to D-Day. Again he made a decision, supporting Eisenhower's plan. It's part of the job, you amateurish twit. It's not "above your pay grade." It is your pay grade.

Two things come out of this meeting. One was predictable as the sunrise, the other is truly ironic. First, as announced by an unnamed official of the Obama administration, "no decisions about increased troop levels were discussed; instead, the group focused on what the goals in that war-torn country should be." Nearly ten months into his administration, the leader who doesn't lead is thinking about forming a policy?! Oh, brother. Peerless leader, lead! This isn't a courtroom, it's a theater of operations. Men and women are being killed and a war is being lost because there is no strategy. Just a lot of talk about what the strategy should be. S--t or get off the pot. Somebody needs to drag out Harry Truman's desk ornament that says "the buck stops here," and plop it on the Lord High Waffler's desk.

Second, in the event that Obama can take some time from his more important duties (see above), and in the less likely event that he is actually capable of making a decision, the only way he is going to get the necessary troops for the surge is to go to the Republicans. That will be a fun sight. He's all but called the Republicans Nazis for opposing his crazed socialist policies at home, he is the most inept executive within most of our memories, he has played footsie with most of the anti-American dictators throughout the world (including Iran, a major supplier of materiel to the Taliban and Al Qaeda), and abandoned the European missile defense shield. Yet now we are expected to believe that the Republicans should forgive and forget, and help him out by providing the votes to put the surge over the top in Congress when they know that the moment something, anything, goes wrong, Obama will throw everybody under the bus.

Well, at least he made one decision. To take a trip to Europe to join Michelle. Hey, how about those Olympics!