02 Dec 09 In a few minutes you can see the mixed message he sent… Obama on the importance of Afghanistan, but for only 18 months?

Most times he is smooth. On Letterman his was like-able. He can get even get quite “Earthy” when he is speaking to his friends (like groups of SEIS member or ACORN folks).

Here he was attempting to be Presidential. Even while he was yet again blaming someone else, Bush, the Iraqi’s, anyone other than himself (because he seems never to be wrong), he had his cadence slowed to the maximum and he was most deliberate.

 The above goes to his style but in the case of Barack Obama, style has never been a problem (he is stylish). It is his content I have a question or two about.

I picked two short clips to add to this post. They are only 8 minutes long each ; yet 16 minutes is long enough to hear the issues I heard. The President (who just won the Nobel Peace Prize) was making his 2nd escalation of soldiers to Afghanistan. This time adding 30,000 troops (which was over 10,000 troops less than his appointee General McChrystal asked for) many months ago. He, Obama defending his move as crucial to the Nation’s interests (to our very safety) and in the next sentence he, and I paraphrase, says, but if it doesn’t work out in 18 months, we’re out of there!.

This may have been the weakest comment regarding the introduction of additional force I have ever heard.

He went on later in his speech, blaming previous administrations, blaming Iraq, saying he didn’t delay the request for the troops (all of which I think was either in poor taste or just disingenuous). Further he gave the reasoning for his mixed message of This is real important/But we might run real quick, he said it was a financial reason. He, Obama, was worried about the $30 Billion this troop surge was going to cost.

I find this interesting. Obama can send 30,000 more troops into harms way, but only for a little while cause it’s expensive. Yet the $!,000,000,000,000 pork laden Stimulus Plan he passed didn’t set off his “Fiscal Responsibility Alarm”, how is that possible?

Obama was guilty of committing the greatest sin a leader can commit. That of attempting to be all things to all people. he does that a lot. He wanted to appease the “right” that clammored for him to decide while the troops were getting killed in the field. After all for the whole campaign he was saying Afghanistan was where we needed to be. Yet Obama knew the “Left” was going to be made if he sent anybody. So he sent less than he was asked for, stating they were only going for a real short time, cause he doesn’t want to spend too much.

You have to be kidding…

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Tags: Afghanistan, Obama, Obama at West Point