Earlier this week, Defense Secretary Gates made an interesting comment.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with a seven-member bipartisan delegation of House members this morning as part of his new strategy of lining up support behind President Obama’s Afghanistan strategy — whatever that turns out to be.
“He said that when we do make a decision, Republicans have an obligation not to make Afghanistan “Obama’s war,” said Pete King (R-N.Y.), one of five GOP members to vote for a recent defense appropriations bill the party opposed over IMF funding.
Other attendees at the 8 a.m. breakfast in Gates’s private Pentagon dining room included: Reps. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), Ed Royce (R-Calif.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), Tim Walz (D-Minn.) and Vic Snyder (D-Ark.).
King, who supports Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s call for 40,000 additional combat troops, emphasized the need for Obama’s battle plan to be based on regional military and political objectives and not the vicissitudes of congressional opinion
I am not really sure what that means, or the implication. For one thing, today, it is Obama’s war. The final decisions are made by him. Republicans have supported Operation Enduring Freedom, and there has been no evidence to support the claim that Republicans have turned their back on it the way Democrats have turned their backs on Iraq for being “Bush’s War.”
In fact, the only politicization of Afghanistan seems to be coming from Obama, who appears to be conflicted over listening to commanders on the ground or left-wing anti-war activists oven how to move forward. Obama’s turned a blind eye to Afghanistan for nine months, ignoring requests for more troops. He does own the war now because he has let the situation deteriorate.
Republicans want success in both Afghanistan and Iraq. It doesn’t matter who is in office. But Obama needs to understand that the war in Afghanistan is his war now. This isn’t a political campaign now. Important decisions must be made. Soundbytes don’t matter. Winning does. Obama has to want to win.
Does he want to win?
I think it is clear that he doesn’t care one way or the other. He’s too busy trying to destroy our economy and wreck the American health care system to give a damn what is happening in Afghanistan or Iraq. He’s been watching Afghanistan turn into a quagmire without blinking an eye.
But, hey, that’s worth a peace prize, right?
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