TO CADETS OF WESTPOINT, REITERATES BUSH STRATEGY
by John Charlton
(Dec. 2, 2009) — Yesterday afternoon Obama — who has no right to be Commander-in-chief, because he is not a natural born citizen of the United States — announced his decision to retreat from Afghanistan in 2011, following a troop surge of and additional 30,000 soldiers.
Obama said, “I did not make this decision lightly.” But he also gave no explanation why he would ask soldiers to risk death in a war he has effectively, and unilaterally proclaimed lost. He further announced that the troop pull out would begin in July, 2011, the same month The Post & Email surmised, on Monday of this week, that the Orange Revolution would break out against his regime. However, it is not known if Obama’s fear of growing resentment against him has led him to similar conclusions, or why he feels it necessary to so suddenly decide to recall the army to the United States.
Obama said that he made this decision because he thought U.S. national security is at risk in Afghanistan and Iraq, even though they are on the other side of the world, thus contradicting almost everything he said during his presidential campaign on the wars which President Bush initiated.
Considering that the troop surge of 30,000 in Iraq, where the militancy of the fight was far weaker, took much longer than a year, and did not allow a troop withdrawal, it seems unlikely that the Obama strategy will have the desired effects, esp. since the Taliban have not retreated, but made marked advances this year in the mountains of Afghanistan, with nearly 5 southern provinces now in their de facto control.
Bob McCarthy reports some quotes from Obama’s speech to the West Point Cadets at his blog. Even the foreign press is remarking that Obama’s decision is more “double-speak.”
The official news site of the Department of Defense took pains to report that everyone backed Obama’s decision, covering the story with 6 separates reports; though it was acting Secretary of Defense Mullen who claimed that military leaders were backing Obama, not the leaders themselves.