Well, well, well...

Obama dubbed the new WAR PRESIDENT by Michael Moore.

Obama: 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan

Obama: "We Did Not Ask for This Fight"
Bush: "We Did Not Seek This Conflict"

Obama: "New Attacks are Being Plotted as I Speak"
Bush: "At This Moment ... Terrorists are Planning New Attacks"

Obama: "Our Cause is Just, Our Resolve Unwavering"
Bush: "Our Cause is Just, Our Coalition [is] Determined"

Obama: "This Is No Idle Danger, No Hypothetical Threat"
Bush: "The Enemies of Freedom Are Not Idle"

Obama: "We Have No Interest in Occupying Your Country"
Bush: "I Wouldn't Be Happy if I Were Occupied Either"

Ambush:
U.S. troop killed in Afghanistan brings
death toll to 300 so far this year

Source: http://www.michaelmoore.com/

Geeze, Dave! There's just no pleasing you!

I just had to post something... I mean here we had another big (waste of time) primetime speech. Days have gone by since the speech and the silence around here in regards to it is deafening! It's no secret I'm not happy with the current administration, and believe me, I took the time to vote, I've called and written to my senators and representatives on the issues, and in a little less than a year from now I'll be back out there voting again!

So when a big Obama supporter does a 180 and starts comparing him to Bush, yes, I'm gonna laugh my ass off and enjoy it - because frankly there ain't a whole lot to be overjoyed about with this administration. So, you are incorrect... I am quite pleased.

Maybe we'll get it right in 2012 now.

Yet another Bush mess that Obama has to clean up..........

this seems a valid point!!

and i ain't drank no kool-aid!

hey, i am listening!

... halfway 'round the world tonight, in a strange and foreign land..........
Not happy about 30000 more troops to Afghanistan, but Obama did say during the campaign that this was what he would do.... troops out of Iraq and into Afghanistan.

He certainly does have his hands full, cleaning up the messes left by Bush.... and DON'T tell me the jobless rate is his fault... it's still fallout from the Bush economic debacle.

Possibly because most of the discussion is on Facebook. See Annie Burns page.

Miss Bush? Hardly. But the same dumb politics of distraction keeps on distracting. Andrew Sullivan is now saying if anyone mentions Obama's birth certificate, he will see that and raise with Trig's birth certificate. That's a loser game because it gets way more sympathy for Palin and once again raises a canard about Obama the rest of us had forgotten.

The surge: here's the deal. On one side is Karzai and his opium smoking Afghan Army. On the other side is the Taliban and their opium smoking afghan army. (caps deliberate). In the middle are the opium smoking peasants who want to be left alone to grow poppies. Basically, one set of thugs we back and one set of thugs we don't. The plan is to stabilize the country by ensuring one set of the thugs wins who can win the hearts and minds of the people.

Take the Wayback Machine to 1964 when the strategy was to assassinate Ngo Dinh Diem and empower Nguyễn Văn Thiệu (see Henry Cabot Lodge). We believed we could stabilize the country by putting a corrupt but anti-communist government in power. For the next eight years, we won every battle and lost every chance at stabilization because we failed to 'win the hearts and minds of the people'.

It didn't work.

An objective is to get into the back door of Pakistan where the real threat is. If the Paks army pushes their Taliban in the north out while we are forcing the Afghan Taliban to head their way, the notion is it can destroy the backbone of Taliban support.

That might work.

But this is a dammed risky strategy overall because if it collapses, the Taliban will quickly take control of both Pakistan and Afghanistan thus holding both a major drug industry and nuclear weapons. India won't stand by for long and we'll be shifting our forces to fight with them in what will possibly be the first regional nuclear blowout. My sense is Obama knows the risks now and that is why he is having to go on with Bush's fiasco.

why does this suddenly pop into my mind?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvgREoDWQqA

Apropos, Agnes. And still relevant.

larry and wyldflower's words are relevant...please don't twist my words!

I voted for Obama because I thought he was the best choice for president (not because I was voting against McCain). I am not disappointed, so far. I think he is doing a good job in the middle of the gigantic pile of crap that was left behind by the previous criminals. It will be a very cold day in hell before I miss Bush and Cheney and the rest of the merry "men".

It's easy to be a Monday morning quarterback. Not so easy to actually be in the game. I am a pacifist and I wish that we weren't in Afghanistan or Iraq, but we are and we have to figure out how to deal with that. I don't want to see more troops go in there, but ultimately this is a plan to end both of these ridiculous wars. I hope it works and that they all can come home. I know enough about the history over there to know that we and our western allies have been screwing with those people for so long that there is no easy fix. And of course, that came back to bite us, big time. This war probably won't change that, just like it didn't really change anything in Viet Nam.
hrg
At the end of the day, I believe that Obama is doing what he believes to be right, and not just what is convenient.

I know the answer but I still want to ask: How come the USA is poking it's nose into everything in the world? Since when does the USA have ALL the answers? Since when does the USA know what's best for anyone other than it's own citizens? (and sometimes I'm not so sure our government does know what's best for it's citizens) When folks connected with Goldman Sachs have been in every administration since Clinton, why do we think our government can do anything in the best manner without a corrupting influence?

This country can be compassionate and truly helpful, but we are the greatest spreader of corruption, greed and immorality in the whole world it seems. We sit here making our 40 thou a year and can't bother to help someone who makes $500 (or less) a year get fresh water cause we HAVE to have our cell phones, big screen tvs, our GPS, our huge gas guzzling SUV and our cable. We are the MOST selfish nation in the world. We come off like we're owed these luxuries. How FLIPPIN' arrogant!!!

I apologize for venting, but it just plain bugs me. And I apologize if I ticked any of you off.

I thought the link to be relevant. I wasn't twisting your words, Agnes. I'm not interested in more deceit about these wars.

Obama is playing a very dangerous game with the lives of everyone in that region. I have to hope he and his advisors are right. The parallels to Vietnam fall apart in two important aspects:

1. They conflict combines tribalism and fundamentalism. That's a nasty self-perpetuating poison. VietNam was a civil war with some aspects of tribalism but very little fundamentalism. They were committed communists in the North whereas the South had little unifying ideology.

2. None of the stable players in VietNam except the US, Russia and China had nuclear weapons and they weren't likely to use them unless personally threatened. China did make it clear that a full on invasion of the north by the US could result in that and it was part of the strategic stalemate that led to closing the harbors and choking off the North from resupply by their Russian sponsors.

Afghanistan is linked directly to the situation in Pakistan and by proxy, to the Pakistani/Indian standoff. It the situation deteriorates with the US withdrawing rapidly enabling the Pakistani Taliban to take Islamabad, India and the US will move directly to seize the nuclear assets of Pakistan and destroy its capacity to rebuild them.

So I think it prudent to hope what Obama and Gates have in mind works. Historical comparisons suggest it won't but one hopes history is not relevant.

I really hope that Obama, knowing way more about the situation than I do, has made the right decision. From my spot on the couch, he looked extremely uncomfortable delivering that speech......he didn't appear to be displaying his usual confidence and self-assuredness

"Well it's one, two, three, What are we fighting for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn
Next stop is" .... Afghanistan