Reducing US troop compliment in Afghanistan will be announced today by President Obama. Prior to the announcement I will predict the number being withdrawn will be small and it will be done in periodic allotments leaving behind at the least 80,000 military and all support workers. Thus, it will be a token reduction and it will be announced in order to quell recent discontent coming from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers. After Obama's speech I will continue this posting.
Well, I was pretty close in my prediction. Obama is stuck between a rock and a hard place as he nears another election, is subject to Republican ha ranging and is in a political predicament whereby he has to please both the right and the left. If he does the intelligent thing and ends the war in Afghanistan the republicans will accuse him of 'cutting and running' he will be accused of cowardice and will suffer many political and public degradations. If he decides to stay in Afghanistan he will be accused by the left of 'doing the republican thing' and will face condemnation for not following his campaign promises.
It appears as though, like most democrats. he has chosen to take the heat from the left rather than the heat from the right. The right-wing machine is more vicious, less forgiving, more rigid and stronger in their public ability to fill airwaves with erroneous untruths. The left-wing is less strong, will forgive and lacks the guts to persevere in their protests. He has appeased the right again and in so doing has again not fulfilled many campaign promises. The token withdrawal and the extension of troop commitments to 2114 is unwise for his political future because no matter what, the right will never vote for him and the left will swing with the wind making their vote uncertain.
This unfortunate decision is a result of political dogma, fear and the uncertain possibility of re-election. It is too bad that Obama has been handcuffed by the bad decisions of and the mistakes made by his predecessor. When will democrats stand on their own and ignore the right? No matter what decision is made by Obama the right will attack. It is my observation that the longer the US stays in Afganistan the worse the economy will get, terrorism will grow and a potential for an expanded military engagement with Pakistan will evolve.
Ending the war as quickly as possible would have been my choice but as I do not have access to information necessary to make the decision I should just shut up. There must be many justifications for Obama's decision I just wish I knew what they were.
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