Still an Obama fan? One can argue he has failed in all his first five foreign policy tests: bungled response to putative coup in Honduras; naive approach to Iran; mishandling of missile defense in Poland; confusion and mixed signals viz Israel; a credibility undermining farce with Afghanistan [has anyone in the Oval Office read Galula on the importance of not showing a weakness that may cause a target population to question your commitment if you want a COIN strategy to work?].
But I'm not going to dwell on Obama's many failings. My beef with you Ricks is why do you feel the need or think it's legitimate to make known your political bias and declare which insufferable pol you're a 'fan' of? Ostensibly, you're an analyst, you're supposed to be objective - if your opinion is to have any value whatsoever one has to be able to believe it's not vitiated by a bias! What is wrong with you people?
One is either a well reasoned commentator or a political hack, you can't be both. Of course people have their sympathies, but you wanna be taken seriously as a critic of something you better make an effort to keep yours stifled - you certainly don't proudly proclaim like a giddy school girl what a fan you are of the Obama - you should be bloody well embarrassed for saying something like that.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Yet another rebuke of Ricks - don't know why this guy bothers me so much, seems he's come to symbolise for me the unhealthy nexus of Obama hagiography and press bias - suppose because I used to read him a lot in early days of wars when he was at the Post - latest offense: tries to upbraid Obama for endless debate of Afghanistan policy but can't bring himself to do so without offering salve of "but I still love you!" Unseemly shit.