Left turn on Afghanistan

In an interview broadcast on “Meet the Press” this morning, the president made it ever more clear that he is going to follow the lead of Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid and the leftists in Congress on Afghanistan. He stated that he is “skeptical” about whether more troops will make a difference, this despite the entreaties of General McKiernan, who was fired for his temerity; General McChrystal, the theater commander, General Petraeus, the architect of our success in Iraq, and JCS Chair Admiral McMullen. He is telegraphing his plans to go directly against the advice of his military commanders.

Washington today is eerily like the Washington of 1975. Nixon had Watergate. This president is consumed with other things and is now being  shown to be deeply hostile to his military not overtly, but by his policy decisions. Every day seems to bring another bombshell; reversals of defense policy, a civil war with his intelligence services, the degradation of our carrier force, and cancellation of critical programs . Planes are falling out of the sky, and the replacements are either delayed or costs are out of control. While our line personnel do their best out in the field, the effort at home is in chaos.

The think tanks on the right and left, after agreeing the Petraeus/McChrystal team had the best odds of success in  2008 have in record time decided there is no chance and it’s best to cut and run. There never was a chance with this administration, truth be told.

When you have a Congressional leadership steeped in the 1960’s antiwar movement and a neocon conservative bureaucracy many of whom were also part of that same mindset, what chance did we ever have? Petraeus and McChrystal were set up for failure on November 4, the day Obama was elected and the Democrats felt invincible.

Obviously, Obama can only mouth Santayana’s quote about history, for he is once again repeating it. Support for the American military and our policy has always been strong. It has not disappeared as the Left would have us believe. Petraeus’ strategy of clear, hold, and build was developed not only for Iraq, but for a wide range of contingencies including Afghanistan. We knew we would need additional troops in 2008 and planned for such. We knew it would take a decades long presence. Now those plans are being ripped up and we will be left with an even greater mess on our hands than in 2001 after 9/11.

The heroin trade finances the Taliban, and will only flourish in our absence. Our enemies in South America are also poisoning our cities with narcotics.  This seems the preferred method of asymetrical warfare today. Just as in 1973, it drains our treasury and our resolve.

You can’ t build walls around countries such as Afghanistan or Somalia or Yemen, and you can’t ignore them. The last time we tried that our enemies flew 2 planes into the World Trade Center trying to incite a global jihad. That threat hasn’t disappeared. It has only been held in check.

Americans have a very short attention span. We forget the lessons of history.  Our enemies don’t. And our allies don’t forget either. We are on a very dangerous path with no apparent plan. This cannot go on much longer, and the consequences will shape the nation far more than health care legislation.