Obama’s “dithering” on the war in Afghanistan and his abrupt betrayals of allies in eastern Europe:
Here is one key passage, which explains why Cheney has re-emerged:
Recently, President Obama’s advisors have decided that it’s easier to blame the Bush Administration than support our troops. This weekend they leveled a charge that cannot go unanswered. The President’s chief of staff claimed that the Bush Administration hadn’t asked any tough questions about Afghanistan, and he complained that the Obama Administration had to start from scratch to put together a strategy.
In the fall of 2008, fully aware of the need to meet new challenges being posed by the Taliban, we dug into every aspect of Afghanistan policy, assembling a team that repeatedly went into the country, reviewing options and recommendations, and briefing President-elect Obama’s team. They asked us not to announce our findings publicly, and we agreed, giving them the benefit of our work and the benefit of the doubt. The new strategy they embraced in March, with a focus on counterinsurgency and an increase in the numbers of troops, bears a striking resemblance to the strategy we passed to them. They made a decision – a good one, I think – and sent a commander into the field to implement it.
Now they seem to be pulling back and blaming others for their failure to implement the strategy they embraced. It’s time for President Obama to do what it takes to win a war he has repeatedly and rightly called a war of necessity.
It’s worth recalling that we were engaged in Afghanistan in the 1980’s, supporting the Mujahadeen against the Soviets. That was a successful policy, but then we pretty much put Afghanistan out of our minds. While no one was watching, what followed was a civil war, the takeover by the Taliban, and the rise of bin Laden and al-Qaeda. All of that set in motion the events of 9/11. When we deployed forces eight years ago this month, it was to make sure Afghanistan would never again be a training ground for the killing of Americans. Saving untold thousands of lives is still the business at hand in this fight. And the success of our mission in Afghanistan is not only essential, it is entirely achievable with enough troops and enough political courage.
In other words, Cheney won’t sit quietly while Obama shifts blame for his own lack of decisiveness onto Bush and Cheney. The notion is risible anyway. Obama campaigned for two years on the promise to fight a more robust counterinsurgency strategy, in large part to dispel the notion that he was an anti-war pacifist. He reaffirmed that decision repeatedly this year, most recently by appointing Ge. Stanley McChrystal, the Army’s leading COIN expert, to command in Afghanistan. Now that McChrystal has requested the resources that comes with COIN, suddenly it’s all Bush’s fault.
Now, of course, we call the above “smart power,” only that has to remain in quotes to capture the irony.