Leak suggests President retains common sense

Someone is spinning that perhaps Obama has qualms about the optimistic plans his military is making for Afghanistan.

"He's simply not convinced yet that you can do a lasting counterinsurgency strategy if there is no one to hand it off to," one participant said.

New York Times,
November 11, 2009

It's hard for these people in Washington to keep a grip on reality -- as one of the last set boasted, they begin to think they make reality.

But this Veterans Day, before President Obama makes moves that mean more dead U.S. soldiers and more dead Afghans, he better keep a grip on the real stuff:

• What's the purpose of the war? Now that Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan, why (and who) are we fighting in this remote country?

• How would we know if we had achieved success? After all Obama's own Afghan envoy Richard Holbrooke could only sputter "we'll know it when we see it." What's that mean?

• When is the U.S. going to get out and how? Even this rich empire can't garrison the world. Has Obama noticed that yet?

Obama has certainly noticed that our European allies would get out in a heartbeat if they listened to their peoples -- and that elections will there are beginning to turn on leaders' willingness to stick with the U.S. in Afghanistan. The Labor party in Britain is going to get hammered for this war.

We like to think we elected a smart one this time. Mr. President, show your stuff by resisting escalation.