Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 1:36 pm by Darryl
Fred Thompson Surrenders
Via Ben Smith:
The president does not have the will and determination to do what’s necessary to win it. His heart’s not in it, and never has been. The Taliban knows it. Al Qaeda knows it. Our allies know it. And the American people know it.
I don’t entirely disagree with Thompson’s analysis, but it seems to me he is about five years too late with his criticism. The fact is, the occupation of Afghanistan has been spiraling out of control for about five years. Notice the growth of coalition casualties after 2004:
George W. Bush lost interest in Afghanistan as his war in Iraq became a quagmire. Afghanistan was ignored. Consider this: There were less than 20,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2005, and only 30,000 by 2008. In his first ten months in office, Obama doubled the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to 62,000.
Alas, Obama’s troop increases are little more than triage at Bush’s train wreck of negligence.
So maybe old Fred is right…maybe it’s hopeless. But, if so, he’s fingered the wrong guy. Bush psychologically “quit” the war years ago.
On the other hand, maybe Obama and his advisors can develop a successful strategy in Afghanistan. Neither Fred nor I know, as we aren’t privy to the conversations.
That doesn’t stop Fred Thompson from surrendering and proclaiming America a failure.
