Last night, I was all set to postmark the following letter to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue:
Dear President Obama,
What the hell is taking you so long?
Sincerely,
A frustrated young American
I didn’t send the letter. Because I woke up to this:
But really, would you blame me if I did? While I do appreciate Obama’s outright and ostentatious self-portrayal as commander in chief , the world waits with breath that’s more than bated—choked, perhaps, for his decision on a troop surge in Afghanistan. Obama wants to appear as though he’s carefully deliberating his decision. Understandable. But it’s been over a month since General Stanley McChrystal leaked to the press that the mission in Afghanistan would fail without a significant troop surge. And that month—October—has been the deadliest month for American troops since the war began in 2001.
Now the “good war,” Obama’s “war of necessity” is increasingly questionable, less and less certain. Recent events all seem to add up negative: we are fighting a losing battle. Al Qaeda is alive and well in Pakistan, where the war is now spilling over—over 100 dead in a bombing at a marketplace in Pakistan. The Taliban, as we have glimpsed from David Rohde’s captivating five-part series “Held By The Taliban”, may not be the kind of people we can work with. The Taliban Rohde witnessed were nearly hypnotized by jihadi videos—executions, road bombs, the final days of suicide bombers. They were fierce. Frightening.
And yesterday, deadly attacks in Kabul. Taliban militants stormed a Kabul guesthouse early on Wednesday morning, killing twelve, including six UN workers. According to a Taliban spokesman, the attack was just the first of many planned to disrupt the upcoming presidential election run-off.
Experts say we cannot win—even with the surge—without a stable government ally. We need the runoff to deliver that. Yet, is it worth all this violence?
So what are we doing, Mr. Obama? And how long is it going to take?
Are we there yet?
We need more than a photo op–however poignant it may be.
interesting.. I agree
You hit the nail on the head. I can’t imagine making the decisions that our president has to make…either way, death and destruction are guaranteed.
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