Dec

President Obama’s Afghanistan Strategy Pleases No One

President Obama took 3 long months to formulate a strategy in Afghanistan that pleases no one in this country. For the first time in his presidency and similiar to President Lyndon Johnson’s handling of the Vietnam War, a president has found a way to alienate both the hard right and far left in this country. It is truly remarkable. By sending 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, he has gone with a middle road that doesn’t please his base or his opposition. No matter what the President decided, he wasn’t going to please conservatives who think his presidency is headed for a Carter-like calamity with high unemployment and an ever increasing deficit. If he followed the request of Gen. Stanley McChrystal to send 40,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, it wouldn’t have stopped Limbaugh, Hannity, and Beck from continuing their fierce opposition to his presidency. The president could have followed the left’s recommendation to send no additional troops to Afghanistan and withdraw all forces from the country. However, that wouldn’t dissuade his far left base from finding something else to find fault with in his foreign policy. During the Bush presidency, the left has shown itself to be highly squeamish of any military action pursued by the United States. Keith Olbermann, MoveOn.org, and NY Times columnist Bob Herbert made pleas for the President to end the War in Afghanistan, so anything other than complete withdrawal from the region would leave them and the rest of the far left dissatisfied. So quite frankly, the President wasn’t going to sell any of the most politically partisan citizens on his Afghanistan strategy with the details he laid out tonight.

The American people have increasingly become skeptical of Obama’s handling in Afghanistan. A Gallup Poll released today shows that only 35% of Americans approve of it, down from 21% from July. What is even more troubling for the President is that his approval in Afghanistan has dipped significantly among Independents (-25%) over the same time period, which is more of a dip than shown from Democrats (-16%) or Republicans (-20%). Politically speaking, even if President Obama fails in Afghanistan, most Democrats will support him for reelection, especially if he signs health care reform and climate change into law. Even if President Obama succeeds in Afghanistan, most Republicans will not support his reelection bid, due to his massive expansion of the federal government. President Obama tonight had to convince Independents, who are abandoning him on Afghanistan in droves to come back inside the tent and support him. I don’t believe he did that tonight in his nationally televised speech at West Point in front of sea of cadets. He tried to talk out of both sides of his mouth by pandering to partisans on both sides of the partisan divide in this country. However, this is not the way you attract moderates to your cause. You attract moderates by showing strength & confidence in your decision. You stress that it must lead to “Victory”, since our national security hangs in the balance. Not once in the President’s speech tonight did he say that we will “win” in Afghanistan. Not once did he stress that our national security was at risk. Americans are not likely to support a plan that simply promises to “end the war.” If we just want to “end the war,” most Americans believe we should just do it now. Especially, if according to President Obama, our national security and well-being is not at risk. He made that clear by setting a timetable for withdrawal of all troops by July 2011. If our nation’s security was at risk, then why would you put a time frame on the conflict? Anytime a war is escalated, Americans believe that victory must be at the core of the decision. President Lyndon Johnson tried escalation strategies to “end the war” in Vietnam and it brought down his presidency. If the President would have used rhetoric and details that conveyed how we were going to “win” in Afghanistan, he would have swept Independents to his side and this would have caused partisans in this country to feel compelled to hop on board. That was the point of the speech tonight. He needed to garner broad support from the American people for a deeply unpopular war in its eighth year. Not an easy task by any means, but the Presidency isn’t an easy job. Nights like tonight separate the average Presidents from the great ones. Obama looked very average tonight.

In a 90 minute interview with Politico, former Vice President Dick Cheney expressed his reservations about President Obama’s overall foreign policy outlook. His analysis clearly cuts to core of why Independents are losing faith in his ability to be an effective Commander-in-Chief. Cheney points out the following reasons why he deems his foreign policy approach to be flawed:

Factoring “politics” into foreign policy decisions
“Dithering” in his decision-making that leads to questions about the President’s commitment
Showing weakness to foreign leaders through bowing and apologizing for our past actions
Not believing in American Exceptionalism

All these points lead to a central idea that the former Vice President is trying to express, which is the President doesn’t know how to be a leader. It is the same point made surprisingly made by filmmaker Michael Moore in an open letter that he wrote to President in opposition of the decision to send more troops into Afghanistan and his desire for immediate withdrawal of all troops from the region. The following points by Moore also help explain why Independents are lacking confidence in the President’s leadership.

He didn’t have the courage to fire Gen. McChrystal who openly defied him in the media
Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan have been diminished to around a hundred members
Americans are more concerned about jobs and rising health care costs

These points lead to Michael Moore’s central idea that there are more important problems facing America than Afghanistan, where Al-Qaeda’s presence in Afghanistan is minimal and provides little threat to America’s security.

The American people were looking for President Obama to answer one question tonight. What makes your approach to Afghanistan and foreign policy better than the ones suggested by the Dick Cheney & Michael Moore? Unfortunately, he didn’t answer that question tonight, which will cause Independents to either lean closer to either Dick Cheney or Michael Moore. The President’s approach to Afghanistan looked to quiet down Cheney and keep Moore on board, but it did neither. Good leaders are able to establish a strong middle ground that maintains support of their party’s most intense partisans and diminishes the influence of its fiercest opponents. Reagan and Clinton both possessed this leadership, which Obama sorely lacks. This is why the President has struggled to achieve any major accomplishments during his first year in office. This is why I lack confidence that President Obama’s strategy will succeed in Afghanistan. He hasn’t given me any reason to believe it will.

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