Obama will drag his feet on Afghan war to look good for the Peace Prize ceremony; then he’ll send 30,000 more GIs

First, President Obama says the Afghanistan fight is “a necessary war.” Second, polls show Americans are tired of the Afghanistan war. Third, the Nobel committee announces Obama will get the Peace Prize.

The bad poll was motivation enough to stall. Now the president doesn’t want to look as if he doesn’t deserve the Peace Prize. He’s delaying a decision on how many extra U.S. troops to send to Afghanistan until a decent interval after the Dec. 10 Nobel ceremony in Oslo.

Once that Nobel Peace Prize medal is sitting in the White House, those al-Qaida and Taliban enemy forces can prepare to die. A good bet: He’ll send 30,000 more troops.

Frank Warner

Comments

[George]

We wouldn't want to tarnish the image of the Nobel Peace Prize.

"Senior administration officials" are suggesting Obama won't send the 30,000 GIs. Time will tell.

[jj mollo]

He's not going to send them until he decides whether it will work. If the Afghan government doesn't clean up their act a little, it won't work. His only leverage on the Afghan government is the chance that he might refuse to send the troops and the aid. His leverage ends as soon as his decision is obvious and obviously firm, therefore he remains "undecided" and "tentative". It's a form of haggling.

It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth. -- Proberbs 20:14

[Frank Warner]

The grievances against Karzai are damn vague, and border on imaginary. We can argue that every government on Earth, including our own, should clean up its act. Whenever we want, we can exaggerate each government's shortcomings.

Whether Karzai or his brother is a saint is almost besides the point. If the Afghanistan war (including the Pakistan battle) is "a necessary war," why would a president be unsure about trying to win it?

If it's necessary to stop al-Qaida and the Taliban extremists there, to prevent them from killing more Americans here, what Karzai is doing in Kabul would be secondary. And if we secure more of Afghanistan, the next elections there would be much easier to validate.

[jj mollo]

Yes, but they will depend on us to do the heavy lifting while they play in their poppy fields. Obama knows more about the problem than I do. I really don't know what he's up to, but I'm guessing it's more likely to be a strategy than a failure of nerve.