... opinions on Obama apparently delaying action on Afghan troop 'surge' decision despite fact that several high placed officers intimated decision was close at hand? Spin is Obama thoroughly going over issues, ruthlessly deliberating over advice and policy input from the military - ie, doing exact opposite of how Dubbya was perceived to have made such decisions. Mere show? Classic liberal distrust of military establishment? The deadlock of over debating a problem out of fear of making a mistake on such a weighty issue? Doesn't even have to be fear, just realisation that foreign policy debates are not as easily adjudicated as domestic policy debates by simple application of ideological dogma? Or actually a case of responsible due diligence?
Dunno - certainly Gates has been advocating a thorough rethink of the whole Afghan policy so could simply be a reflection of that. Very hard to say - two points though: one, Obama talked up Afghan surge during campaign and therefore to step back now would represent his first serious foreign policy stumble insomuch as potentially undermines military credibility; two, I said at the time his talking up Afghanistan was a load of crap - since he'd built his campaign around opposing the Iraq war the only way he could project military gravitas was to talk tough on Afghanistan but now finds himself at the point where actions have dire consequences and rhetorical flourishes only serve to confuse and obscure that reality.
Again, hard to say what's what here - but am struck by how press only seems to see the ostensible positives of this endless rumination when the potential negatives are so clearly there.
