"Lyndon Baines Obama"

The San Francisco Examiner nailed it. The headline is "Lyndon Baines Obama takes Afghanistan reins."

Earlier this year, President Barack Obama described the conflict in Afghanistan as a “war of necessity,” but the plan he announced last night at the U.S. Military Academy bears disturbing reminders of the doomed strategy doggedly pursued by the last Democratic president to commit the U.S. to a major land war in Asia.

Senator Russ Feingold gets it right:

I do not support the president’s decision to send additional troops to fight a war in Afghanistan that is no longer in our national security interest.  It’s an expensive gamble to undertake armed nation-building on behalf of a corrupt government of questionable legitimacy.  Sending more troops could further destabilize Afghanistan and, more importantly, Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state where al Qaeda is headquartered. While I appreciate that the president made clear we won’t be in Afghanistan forever, I am disappointed by his decision not to offer a timetable for ending our military presence there.  I will work with members of both parties and both houses of Congress to push for a flexible timetable to reduce our troop levels in Afghanistan, as part of a comprehensive strategy to combat al Qaeda in the region and around the world.

Representative Tammy Baldwin didn't equivocate:

“In 2001, I voted to authorize the use of force to bring to justice those responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

I believe our current actions in Afghanistan and President Obama’s proposal for moving forward bear little resemblance to that original, narrowly-focused mission.

I cannot endorse a military surge in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  It’s time for our troops to come home.”

Paul thinks differently, and will post subsequently.

- Barry Orton

Comments

[R.J.]

It's really about Pakistan and keeping them within our reach. Somebody has to keep India safe so IBM and GE can outsource.

[hieronymous]

As LBJ said ... "We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves." Substitute the word Afghan for Asian and current events take on an eerie familiarity.

[Ben Masel]

The Obama West Point speech is eerily reminiscent of Johnson's April 7, 1965 address, "Peace without Conquest."
http://bit.ly/8Up8UP

"Why must we take this painful road?

Why must this Nation hazard its ease, and its interest, and its power for the sake of a people so far away?

We fight because we must fight if we are to live in a world where every country can shape its own destiny. And only in such a world will our own freedom be finally secure.

This kind of world will never be built by bombs or bullets. Yet the infirmities of man are such that force must often precede reason, and the waste of war, the works of peace.

We wish that this were not so. But we must deal with the world as it is, if it is ever to be as we wish.

The world as it is in Asia is not a serene or peaceful place."{

[Karen Schubeck]

I just listened to Sen. Feingold discuss Afghanistan and the presidents new escallation. His comments were what I had expected to hear from President Obama. I am angry and saddened. I think that we all need to call for the immediate dismissal of Secretary Gates. He is a carryover of the previous incapable and bumbling administration. What can we do to make this happen. Paul give us a roadmap. Also, Sen Feingold indicated that the Afghan escallation is still being faught. Do we need to organize a march in Madison or Milwaukee to show our support for stopping this action. We need visibility. I was going to actively support Pres. Obama and now I will not.