The president has in his command a great fighting force and gifted commanders. He clearly hopes they will succeed. But there is always the hint that this Afghan campaign became the good, worthwhile war by default, a cause with which to bludgeon his predecessor's foray into Iraq.Again, I pointed this out two years ago, that Obama's rhetoric on Afghanistan was mere political calculation and revealed just what a dangerous fraud he'd prove to be when it came to foreign policy - I believe I was kicked off the comment sections of at least a couple of high profile liberal blogs for having the temerity to suggest that their dear leader was a fraud, a liar, a phony - why is it taking the pundits so long to put this puzzle together? Makes me curious regarding the role 'instinct' plays in the understanding of any given problem set - I recall that one of my first warnings against Obama was that because he's not only highly intelligent but is so good at telegraphing an appealing image of higher intelligence that people would be seduced into making the mistake, the flawed but seemingly logical connection of assuming that intelligence would produce good and right decisions - that given the prevailing public perception of Bush as being 'not bright' that people would tend to draw the faulty conclusion that higher intelligence would equal better results as a matter of course. I made the point that effective leadership was about much more than simply being smart - I believe I used the illustration that I've often found myself in a room where I was most decidedly not the smartest person in that room but regardless come an emergency there's not a one of them I would have trusted with my life - or trusted at all. Which is not to absurdly suggest that I'm somehow against intelligence - but rather to say that people are fooled by many things - good looks, fame, money, power - even righteous vigour and moral probity - I tend to believe that superior intellect is a guise Obama wields with particular relish.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Today in Wall Street Journal op-ed:
