POLITICO.COM : Obama’s Afghan surge bolstered his national security credentials at a time when Republicans portrayed him as a sissy and fool. Now, he can opt for a faster-than-expected withdrawal timetable against the advice of his senior military advisers

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Obama is intelligent, rational, cerebral, brainy, shrewd and political, he has always understood the stupid nature of the Afghan War and the fact that its prolongation beyond 10 years has nothing to do with "Terrorism".

When have you seen a general that does not ask for more troops ??? .... Never in History ! -- When have you seen a general that does not promise victories ??? .... Never in History ! .... War is their business and their job and they earn their fame and money by waging war and killing people, mostly innocent people, specially when it is a war of choice, and not a war of necessity.

The fact that Obama is a Law Scholar does not make him a fool ! .... And what a Great Orator ! ... We have not seen the equal of President Obama in our lifetimes.

POLITICO.COM
President Obama's Afghanistan speech reveals war that no longer seems so smart
By GLENN THRUSH
June 22, 2011


President Obama's Afghanistan speech reveals war that no longer seems so smart


Some excerpts :

One additional achievement unmentioned in the 14-minute address: The role Obama’s Afghan surge played in bolstering his national security credentials at a time when Republicans portrayed him as just another weak Democratic president lacking the guts to wage war for a just cause.

But that just cause, in Obama’s view, is no longer reason enough for what had essentially become an open-ended U.S. commitment. So the president has opted for a faster-than-expected withdrawal timetable against the advice of senior military advisers, including Gen. David Petraeus.

“These long wars must come to a responsible end [and] we must learn from their lessons,” said Obama, articulating a more surgical approach to U.S. military intervention than he was able to describe during a speech on Libya earlier this year.

History will tell if the speech Wednesday night was a form of capitulation, a well-earned victory lap or combination of both.

Obama’s “dumb” vs. “smart” war meme, first outlined in his October, 2002 speech as an unknown state senator, didn’t seem to be far from his thoughts. Now as then, he made the argument for extricating the country from an unpopular war without losing political face — or bitterly-won gains against al Qaeda.

“We must chart a more centered course,” he said after announcing that 10,000 troops would be pulled out of Afghanistan by year’s end.

“We must embrace America’s singular role in the course of human events but we must also be as pragmatic as we are passionate, as strategic as we are resolute. When threatened we must respond with force – but when that force can be targeted, we need not deploy large armies overseas.”

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