The president's speech the other day on Afghanistan has laid the groundwork for the regional conflict to become Obama's War. Adding 30,000 more boots on the ground, led by a few thousand jarheads who will be in the thick of Taliban Territory before Christmas, President Obama has passed the torch to this adminstration from that of President Bush.
Everyone agrees the Bush administration became distracted with Iraq and blew initial inroads against the Taliban and al-Qaida. So, Obama is on the right tank track, as far as The Hound is concerned. But what's the idea of announcing a date certain --- 2011 --- when we're leaving? Couldn't he have announced an Afghanization plan, like President Nixon did when he took over the conduct of the Vietnam War? Was that too much too ask?
Apparently, because the geezers remember it took Nixon five years to unravel the U.S. out of Vietnam and only after he started trying to bomb North Vietnam into the Stone Age. Or, are the Obamans taking a page from the Nixon playbook and planning to announce a secret peace plan when 2011 comes around, just before the '12 election cycle gets under way?
Only time and Americans' grit to stay in the high elevations of the Hindu Kush in search of Osama bin Laden will tell.