President Obama, in his first public statement on the leaked documents on Tuesday, sought to blunt any suggestion that the documents should force a rethinking of the nation’s commitment to the war effort. He said, as his advisers have previously, that the problems in Afghanistan reflected by the documents have been long known and they are being addressed by the policy changes he has put in place.
“While I’m concerned about the disclosure of sensitive information from the battlefield that could potentially jeopardize individuals or operations, the fact is these documents don’t reveal any issues that haven’t already informed our public debate on Afghanistan,” Mr. Obama said to reporters in the Rose Garden. “Indeed, they point to the same challenges that led me to conduct an extensive review of our policy last fall.”
I admit I voted for Obama. I didn’t believe he would change anything, but I didn’t want Sarah Palin a heartbeat from the Presidency.
Ok I admit, I didn’ t want to be on the wrong side of history. Billy Dee Williams could have been running and I would have voted for him. I wish Wesley Snipes had been running. None of us would be paying income taxes. I figured old White Guys had fucked things up for so long it was time to give the opportunity to a different race or gender. What could it hurt? We already saw Bush could hang in there. The major damage was already done. It is hard to burn down an already burnt down house.
I really believe that in the first few minutes after getting sworn in, before he can do anything else, the Brotherhood of Darkness, for lack of a more colorful term takes the new President down to the nether reaches of the White House bunker and opens the Ark of the Covenant. They show the President his new boss and from then on all campaign promises are forgotten and it is business as usual in Washington.
How else can you explain Barack Obama going along with the war in Afghanistan? He’s a bright guy, he can not actually believe there is any reason to be fighting the Sand People from Star Wars in a mountainous region in the Land of the Lost. Obama must have been zapped by the great white light of the ark. He now goes along with all the same bullshit policies that have fucked the middle class for decades.
If you still have any confidence in Obama changing anything then you are far more optimistic and forgiving than I am. We were duped. There is no other word for it. At least the Republicans have the balls to come out and say they won’t change anything because it is working for them.
Maybe people ought to be more patient, maybe I ought to wait another year to find a job. Maybe we can just wait and see what is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. Maybe we can just let the Wall Street crooks keep stealing from us.
I am just jaded at the fact that Obama believes in his war strategy in Afghanistan. It’s a fucking mess. Quit digging the hole and pull out. It’s already too late.
Why is it so hard for a president to end a war? I think it is the Ark of the Covenant or the little green men or Bigfoot down there there in the basement. It must be a really scary site.
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Obama actually campaigned on prosecuting the war in Afghanistan more vigorously. So this is a case where he is keeping his campaign promises. I tend to give politicians a pass in this situation.
If Obama is smart, in late 2011 he will say that he made a real effort to see if something could be salvaged from Afghanistan, it didn’t work, so he is pulling out of there, and from Iraq as well. Unfortunately, this is how great powers get out of colonial style conflicts, they back out, quietly (something about not willing to admit error). There is still a chance this might happen.
I agree with you on the economic stuff, where the stakes are greater and Obama and Congress had more freedom of action, given how the banks seem to have been more bankrupt than our Middle Eastern policy.
“Brotherhood of Darkness” Good bit!