Afghanistan: Truth and Consequences

progressive.org — About half way into his speech at West Point on his plan to deploy 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, President Obama appeared to be repressing a brief bout of indigestion. No wonder.

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washingtonmonthly.com — One of the more common complaints I heard last night about President Obama's speech on U.S. policy in Afghanistan is that Obama "at times sounded like Mr. Bush in justifying this war. He celebrated the United States as a nation 'founded in resistance to oppression' and talked about its long record of sacrifice in 'advancing frontiers of human liberty.'" That's certainly fair, and any similarities to George W. Bush are necessarily discouraging. But, while it was hardly the most important part of the West Point speech, one of the elements of the address that stood out was the way in which Obama called out Bush for pursuing a failed policy for so long.

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prospect.org — President Obama didn't confront the fundamental questions of the Afghanistan conflict, a move that puts his overall policy at risk.

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washingtonpost.com — One of the common complaints of George W. Bush's presidency was his tendency to politicize the military and turn troops into props. Obama's fondness for audiences in uniform is not yet in the same category as his predecessor's. Still, Obama's flirtation with military imagery should be of concern to his allies on the left, who are already unhappy with the hawkish direction his Afghanistan policy has taken.

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michaelmoore.com — President Obama, it's time to come home. Ask your neighbors in Chicago and the parents of the young men and women doing the fighting and dying if they want more billions and more troops sent to Afghanistan. Do you think they will say, "No, we don't need health care, we don't need jobs, we don't need homes. You go on ahead, Mr. President, and send our wealth and our sons and daughters overseas, 'cause we don't need them, either"?

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