I hear a lot of people arguing about the 30,000 troop surge.
Obama is continuing the Bush policy. No, Obama is finishing the job like an adult. No, Obama is wasting our financial and political resources. No, Obama has a responsibility to the Afghanistan people.
Did anyone miss the big part?
In 19 months, we are gone. No Iraq. No Afghanistan. No more wars.
Someone will respond to me and say "yeah, but in 19 months we still have troops in Afghanistan."
Like Iraq.
After Obama's inauguration... how many months did he plan on taking before we pulled out of Iraq?
17 months.
If 17 months to get out is a withdrawal, and 19 months to start withdrawing makes him a war President... are we really going to tear the progressive movement apart over a hand full of months?
Listen, I have probably one of the most conflicted opinions on the Afghan war.
I'm not sure Bush should have gone in, but I accepted it as a sound idea. I knew he'd screw it up, but I felt we may need to try. I knew Afghanistan needed a huge change in 1999, but I'm not sure if America had the political tools make that happen. I'm not sure if we can still win it, but I know we can't just pull out instantly. I don't want it to screw up Obama's agenda. Does Obama lose if he stays? Does Obama lose if he withdraws? How do we finish this?
19 months. One and a half years.
Sounds to me like Obama went through the same conflicting arguments that I did. And probably more than that. He's smarter than me, and he's surrounded by people who are smart and experienced and passionate (sometimes all three qualities at the same time). There's no doubt he had to deal with a million factors, and make an imperfect decision in an imperfect situation.
If I wanted to get the fuck out, I'd finish withdrawing in one and a half years.
If I wanted to win this thing and go home, I'd start withdrawing in one and a half years.
This is not to trivialize a difficult issue. But it's to show that Obama probably took both sides into account, and found the best solution he could. I'm not thrilled, but I trust this man. Not as an Obamabot, but as someone who has never shied away from criticism, and can't come up with a better solution than what we heard tonight.
UPDATE: I made a comment downthread, and I thought some of it was relevant to the rest of yall.
i may as well tell you that I did not like Obama's policy on residual troops in Iraq (a reason I didn't support him in the primary), and no, I'm not exactly thrilled with this policy either.
my point is that, at the most, we'd be arguing for a withdrawal at a time when it won't lead to an enormous cost of Afghan lives. and that's not gonna be tomorrow. that's not even gonna be by the end of next year. At best, we might expect the withdrawal to finish in two years. Obama has announced that the withdrawal will start in a year and a half.
we're down to haggling over a few months -- important months that will cost Afghan lives if we're too soon, and American lives if we're too late. and under the circumstances, I'm not going to second guess a University law professor with data from three intelligence agencies and a panel of military experts. i'm not going to argue it should be a month sooner, or a month later.
and we shouldn't tear the movement apart over that argument.