POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

A premonition of elements in tonight’s speech by the President.

While I heartily approve of the President finally deigning to approve General McChrystal's reinforcement request, a couple of facets disturb me greatly. 

First, were I Obama, in matters like this I would have tended to, you know, actually trust and rely on the recommendations of the commander that I appointed and whose strategy I gave public, full-throated endorsement to in March and August of this year.

Secondly, as President I certainly wouldn't be setting a timetable for withdrawl before I actually sent the necessary reinforcements.  That's kind of like a gentleman showing up on a blind date, and upon meeting, asking his companion just which hotel he'd be schtupping her in later !  It's definately putting the cart before the horse, and obviously inspires a strategy on the part of your enemy to simply lay low until your pre-determined withdrawl date, and then mount their own offensive!

Still, based on this move by John "Lurch" Kerry, I'm getting a feeling for what will be a major component of the President's message tonight:

President Obama unveils his new Afghanistan strategy today, and in the nick of time Senator John Kerry has arrived with a report claiming that none of this would be necessary if former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had only deployed more troops eight years ago. Yes, he really said more troops.

In a 43-page report issued yesterday by his Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr. Kerry says bin Laden and deputy Ayman Zawahiri were poised for capture at the Tora Bora cave complex in late 2001. But because of the "unwillingness" of Mr. Rumsfeld and his generals "to deploy the troops required to take advantage of solid intelligence and unique circumstances to kill or capture bin Laden," the al Qaeda leaders escaped.

The timing of the report's release suggests that Mr. Kerry intends this as political cover for Mr. Obama and Democrats, and some in the press corps have even taken it seriously. But coming from Mr. Kerry, of all people, this criticism is nothing short of astonishing.

Yeah...Astonishing all right, especially in view of some stubborn facts and inconvenient truths provided by someone who is eminently knowledgable on the subject of that phase of the war; General Tommy Franks:

On more than one occasion, Senator Kerry has referred to the fight at Tora Bora in Afghanistan during late 2001 as a missed opportunity for America. He claims that our forces had Osama bin Laden cornered and allowed him to escape. How did it happen? According to Mr. Kerry, we "outsourced" the job to Afghan warlords. As commander of the allied forces in the Middle East, I was responsible for the operation at Tora Bora, and I can tell you that the senator's understanding of events doesn't square with reality.

First, take Mr. Kerry's contention that we "had an opportunity to capture or kill Osama bin Laden" and that "we had him surrounded." We don't know to this day whether Mr. bin Laden was at Tora Bora in December 2001. Some intelligence sources said he was; others indicated he was in Pakistan at the time; still others suggested he was in Kashmir. Tora Bora was teeming with Taliban and Qaeda operatives, many of whom were killed or captured, but Mr. bin Laden was never within our grasp.

Contrary to Senator Kerry, President Bush never "took his eye off the ball" when it came to Osama bin Laden. The war on terrorism has a global focus. It cannot be divided into separate and unrelated wars, one in Afghanistan and another in Iraq. Both are part of the same effort to capture and kill terrorists before they are able to strike America again, potentially with weapons of mass destruction. Terrorist cells are operating in some 60 countries, and the United States, in coordination with dozens of allies, is waging this war on many fronts

So, on top of Kerry being terribly mistaken, and obviously playing domestic political games with foreign policy and the lives of our troops, he has also telegraphed what the President plans to use as his main talking point tonight; I BLAME BOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!

Listen to the President's words tonight.  In between all of the palaver about avoiding a Vietnam-esque "quagmire" by stipulating withrawl dates in advance, he'll blame Bush for the situation we are in today, and he wil never use the word victory.  This is all a swan song, calculated to keep the nutroots and the far left of his party on board with his agenda, and to keep them energized and active.  It's more about securing his political flank than our soldiers flank; more about his electoral success than actual victory in the war that he spent two years calling the "good war"-using it as a cheap political ploy to showcase his foreign policy toughness, all while declaring the surge, and indeed the war, in Iraq lost.

So listen to him, remember his words, so that you'll be able to enjoy watching him try to weasel out later; when this promise, like many of his others, expires...

Posted at 19:50 eastern time, just before Mr. Obama's address.

Rocketman