Former SecDef Gates writes a book, slams Obama - but most importantly for me confirms what I have been saying for some five years now: Obama's embrace of the 'good war' in Afghanistan was nothing but a political calculation that he had no intention of following through on - his main, indeed possibly only concerns were beating Hillary in the primary by looking presidential with tough talk on Afghanistan and then, when he finally became president, of how to look like he was honoring that tough talk without actually entangling himself too deeply in a war he wanted no part of. I was saying this [and being ignored or pilloried for it] in 2008 - and again in 2009 when Obama was involved in his interminable discussions on how to proceed in Afghanistan and I labelled these deliberations as nothing but political theatre designed to make it look like he was serious about Afghanistan when all he was really serious about was constraining and then significantly hollowing out traditional notions of American power and foreign policy obligations and concerns - and of course getting re-elected, which would of course involve the spinning of narratives about how he had ended wars and was turning America into a kinder, gentler, more humbled UN friendly thing full of cooperation and goodwill for all.
The question Americans need to ask is: how is it an idiot blogger like me managed to figure this out about Dear Leader a full five years ago while the mainstream media missed it entirely? I think we all know the answer to that - in the crap shoot that democracy often devolves into you're gonna get bad presidents, unfortunately sometimes more bad ones than good ones - which is why I tend to think the real threat to this country is not the misguided incompetence of someone like Obama but rather the media bias that made it possible and indeed encouraged it and possibly has the means to make such misguided and fundamentally undemocratic rule a permanent feature of our politics. It's vital that Republicans find a way to counteract this threat - allowing the right wing base to control the debate with the hyperbole and sense of holy outrage it is wont to ply is not the way to go - the GOP desperately needs to put forward leaders who exude confidence and competence and can make the counter argument in a broadly appealing way - otherwise, I expect things will become increasingly messy until we get to the point where the country is lost to the enfeeblement and eventual ruin imposed by an unstoppable media enabled liberal oligarchy - or things just simply start falling apart, possibly violently so.
[I should note that my problem isn't about Obama not fighting to win in Afghanistan - I think one can make a convincing argument that for various reasons 'winning' was not an option in that war - my problem is that to me it was obvious that Obama was lying about his intentions viz Afghanistan both in the primary against Hillary and once he'd become president and the media, blinded by love for the man, either couldn't see this or saw it and decided to keep it hidden - I think it was mostly the former but disturbing either way - and of course like any clear thinking sane person I'm deeply troubled by fact Obama seemingly chose to fake fight a war he didn't believe in resulting in the deaths of many people and more damage being done to American foreign policy credibility for no other reason than to serve his political interests - that's repugnant - I don't fault the man for thinking the war unwinnable, if indeed that's what he believed - I fault him deeply for what he did about that belief]
The question Americans need to ask is: how is it an idiot blogger like me managed to figure this out about Dear Leader a full five years ago while the mainstream media missed it entirely? I think we all know the answer to that - in the crap shoot that democracy often devolves into you're gonna get bad presidents, unfortunately sometimes more bad ones than good ones - which is why I tend to think the real threat to this country is not the misguided incompetence of someone like Obama but rather the media bias that made it possible and indeed encouraged it and possibly has the means to make such misguided and fundamentally undemocratic rule a permanent feature of our politics. It's vital that Republicans find a way to counteract this threat - allowing the right wing base to control the debate with the hyperbole and sense of holy outrage it is wont to ply is not the way to go - the GOP desperately needs to put forward leaders who exude confidence and competence and can make the counter argument in a broadly appealing way - otherwise, I expect things will become increasingly messy until we get to the point where the country is lost to the enfeeblement and eventual ruin imposed by an unstoppable media enabled liberal oligarchy - or things just simply start falling apart, possibly violently so.
[I should note that my problem isn't about Obama not fighting to win in Afghanistan - I think one can make a convincing argument that for various reasons 'winning' was not an option in that war - my problem is that to me it was obvious that Obama was lying about his intentions viz Afghanistan both in the primary against Hillary and once he'd become president and the media, blinded by love for the man, either couldn't see this or saw it and decided to keep it hidden - I think it was mostly the former but disturbing either way - and of course like any clear thinking sane person I'm deeply troubled by fact Obama seemingly chose to fake fight a war he didn't believe in resulting in the deaths of many people and more damage being done to American foreign policy credibility for no other reason than to serve his political interests - that's repugnant - I don't fault the man for thinking the war unwinnable, if indeed that's what he believed - I fault him deeply for what he did about that belief]
