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 Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! November 15, 2009 32By GreyhawkIt's the Secretary of State's turn on the Sunday talk shows. Here's the message: Clinton: Karzai 'Must Do Better' for U.S. Backing. Very nice. But thus far the Obama administration has failed on multiple fronts:
Secretary Clinton made sure to remind America that the Obama administration inherited the mess in Afghanistan from President Bush, but with each passing day that argument grows weaker. Having failed to make the case against Karzai, arguments that he's the real problem - regardless of the degree of validity - will appear increasingly like blame-shifting to a new target. That's something Americans can understand. But then again, if the Karzai thing just ain't workin', apparently there are plenty of other issues to demonstrate the president's thoughtful concern. How many is "plenty"? Would you believe 32? Woodward said he's working on a book on topic and revealed that the President has no fewer than 32 issues on the table that need answers before he can decide how to go forward on Afghanistan. I hope that list is getting shorter. Posted by Greyhawk / November 15, 2009 2:51 PM | Permalink TrackBackTrackBack URL: http://www.mudvillegazette.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/16965 2 CommentsLeave a comment |
March 19, 2010Dawn Patrol 03/19/2003 [Greyhawk]
"Welcome to the Dawn Patrol, our daily roundup of information on the War on Terror and other topics - from the MilBlogs and various sources around the world." Mudville was founded in March, 2003. Our efforts to bring the thoughts, words, and deeds of milbloggers to a wider world evolved to become The Dawn Patrol in March, 2005. With today's entry we're going to reset the clock - but not re-write the history - and recreate the world as it was - on a day the world changed...
Updating... more to follow.... MILBOGSAndrew Olmsted, 19 Mar 2003, Stateside: It would appear that the liberation of Iraq has begun. Greyhawk, 18 Mar 2003, Germany: A united world could have, just maybe, brought down Saddam without firing a shot. We will never know. 19 Mar: We'll never know what a united world could have achieved... the UN could not agree on anything, the situation degenerated, and here we are. Status quo was not working. The French were too desperate for oil and trade at any cost. Well-intentioned Americans were led into the streets by Communists (and others) with an agenda. The media distorted the split. Many in America and abroad thought they could manipulate the situation to their personal gain. They miscalculated. The fire is lit. Pontifx ex Machina, 18 Mar, undisclosed location: Rolling out the gate, the guard gets a quick "hook-em, horns" sign as we weave through the barricades. Then we're off, cruising through the desert in a battered-up SUV. On the eve of war, only one thing passes through our minds: is there going to be any appropriate music on the radio? Lt Smash, 19 Mar, undisclosed location: Read the President's speech today. The clock is ticking. Chief Wiggles, 22 Mar, Kuwait: The war started Wednesday morning for us right after the president gave a speech to the American people that lasted about 4 minutes. We were all very anxious for this whole thing to be either over or get it on its way. Will, 22 Mar, en route: I am going to Baghdad to personally shoot that paper hanging son of a bitch! Lt Smash 20 Mar, undisclosed location: Sgt Stryker, 20 Mar, Stateside: Iraq to File U.N. Complaint About Attack Primary Main Objective, 30 Mar, undisclosed location I Dare Kofi to Come Get Me.
BruceR, Flit, 19 Mar, Canada: AND SO IT BEGINS. Godspeed, Yanks. Come home safe and soon. Andrew Olmsted, 20 Mar 2003, Stateside: The most important thing to remember over the next few days is this: the first reports are almost always inaccurate. First reports are generally submitted in the heat of battle before any real analysis can take place. Therefore, they're highly subjective, based on limited information, and rarely hit the mark. So as the first reports of 'surgical strikes' on Iraqi forces come in, it's best to take those reports with a grain of salt... Iraqi BlogsSalam Pax, Baghdad: The bombing aould come and go in waves, nothing too heavy and not yet comparable to what was going on in 91. all radio and TV stations are still on and while the air raid began the Iraqi TV was showing patriotic songs and didn't even bother to inform viewers that we are under attack. at the moment they are re-airing yesterday's interview with the minister of interior affairs. THe sounds of the anti-aircarft artillery is still louder than the booms and bangs which means that they are still far from where we live, but the images we saw on Al Arabia news channel showed a building burning near one of my aunts house... American BlogsGlenn Reynold's has a ton of links. Newpapers
Updating... more to follow.... |
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It just goes to show what a lousy job the State Department is doing. Eikenberry, Holbrooke, and Clinton blame others, but when will the look at themselves. It is their plan that is the failure, that is if they even have a plan.
I'm no historian so I don't know the answer but was making decisions about how to fight WWII this difficult and protracted for Roosevelt? He had to make some fairly significant ones rather quickly from what I do know, like fighting in Europe as the priority over the Pacific, things like that. And he couldn't know until the end whether the decisions were the right ones. I'm sure a lot of the ones that were made weren't correct and if the allies had a do-over they'd have done some things differently. Certainly that's true about the decisions made in the Vietnam war. But that's the thing about decisions, you don't know if they're right or wrong until they've played themselves out.
Obviously WWII isn't this war and the world was very different back then. I suppose everyone felt a sense of urgency about WWII, decisions had to be made rather quickly and decisively and there wasn't a lot of time for dawdling. I guess that's the main thing missing now. There's no sense of urgency, no belief that it even really matters one way or the other. It doesn't seem we're even committed to the idea that there is a fight that needs to be won in Afghanistan, although that's certainly not consistent with what Obama the candidate said back in 2008. I suppose for the guys getting shot at and killed in Afghanistan there's a sense of urgency but not for anyone else, and certainly not for the Obama government.
I wonder if that weighs on him at all. That while he deliberates soldiers are dying. He justifies that through speeches where he tells the military that he's not going to send them into harm's way without a clear plan and so on, which is maybe comforting for someone who's not already in Afghanistan I suppose. And we civilians are told that we should be pleased Obama is taking such a thoughtful and measured approach because it means he's determined to get it right, that it shows he's not like Bush. But that's losing its palliative effect I think.
What no one seems to want to talk about is that his choices are fairly limited. He isn't going to make Karzai into Thomas Jefferson, the Afghan Army isn't going to turn into the 82nd Airborne overnight, Pakistan isn't going to suddenly become Canada. This is the war he has, it may not be the war he wants but it's the one he's got and this is what it looks like. So when he finally makes his decision and announces it, we'll all know right away if he's truly in it to win it or he isn't. Which is really the reason he's taking so long I think, to keep us from knowing that as long as possible. But then the fact that he IS taking so long probably tells us the answer to that question already.
Sorry for the long comment.