After months of agonizing meetings Obama made the decision to send 30,000 troops to Afghanistan in support of General McChrystal’s request. Give him credit he made an unpopular decision–unpopular with his base; yes he offended his leftist base. I believe this is the first such decision of his presidency. Hopefully it will not be his last.
Yet the decision was fraught with compromise the most devastating part of which was his announcement to begin troop withdrawal in 18 months, mid-2011. This compromise was made no doubt to placate the same leftist base he offended. It unfortunately took away some of the firmness of his resolve and commitment. Yes, and this showed.
Ralph Peters in his December 2nd New York Post article, Setting Up Our Military To Fail, details the problems with the 2011 withdrawal just before the 2012 election. He characterizes the bait-and-switch as not just stupid but immoral, listing the following messages the speech sends: ”To our troops: Risk your lives for a mission I’ve written off. To our allies: Race you to the exit ramp. To the Taliban: Allah is merciful, your prayers will soon be answered. To Afghan leaders: Get your stolen wealth out of the country. To Pakistan: Renew your Taliban friendships now (and be nice to al Qaeda).” Let’s just hope Obama with subsequent firm action corrects some of these impressions.
And firm action along with unpopular decisions will soon be needed indeed. Afghanistan despite all the agonizing was the easy decision compared to what will be needed in Iran. Here we have a radical Islamist regime in illegitimate control. Soon it will have nuclear warheads for its missiles. It has vowed to destroy Israel and has as its ultimate goal the destruction of the United States. It freely exports terrorism in the region and to our own soil.
With regard to Iran Obama has not made any decisions unpopular with his base. On the contrary he has gone around apologizing for the US. He has curried favor with Ahmadinejad. He has all but abandoned Israel. And instead of supporting and encouraging the democratic Iranians contesting the mullahs and the rigged election, he has ignored them.
Ahmadinejad continues to refine nuclear fuel to weapon grade levels; he continues to build nuclear facilities; he laugh in the face of the useless UN inspectors; and he toys with Obama’s “tough talk.” Every time Obama draws a line in the sand, Ahmadinejad crosses it. Line-step, line-step, line-step, ad infinitum! Even France has suggested that Obama show some backbone to Iran. There have been so many lines in the sand crossed that the US no longer has any credibility with allies or foes. Anne Bayefsky in a December 3rd National Review Online post, The Iran Timeline, counts 13!
The real fact is that Islamists are a serious threat bent on controlling the world and not by democratic means. They have a gigantic worldwide presence. Europe will be Islamic within a generation and Sharia Law will rule. So far high birth rates and terrorism have been the tools of conquest. Intimidation both at the individual and societal level has also been used. The multiculturalists and internationalists have been their allies; and political correctness as we have recently have seen at Ft. Hood has been their protector.
But to date no Islamist state has nuclear weapons. Iran will change that within months. Then intimidation and terrorism will take on a whole new ugly character. Experts say that the hollow threats of sanctions, indeed sanctions themselves will not work to change Iran’s course. It’s pretty clear that Obama has wasted whatever credibility the US had with his smiles, bows and idle lines in the sand.
Thus one option is left, the military option. This is not a boots-on-the-ground option but an all out missile strike at the Iranian nuclear installations. It can either be preemptive and quick or as a counter attack in defense of Israel or other regional ally and prolonged. Barbara Lerner has posted a long and well reasoned article on National Review Online, The War for 21st-Century Freedom, December 3rd. Despite its length, I commend a full and thoughtful reading.
The front page of todays WSJ reports on an Iranian-American engineering student here receiving an email threat that if he didn’t stop criticizing Iran on Facebook, his family in Tehran would suffer; he thought it a joke until his mother called saying that his father had been arrested!
Yes, Obama’s Afghanistan decision was easy compared to those that lie before him on Iran. I pray for the sake of our country that he has the courage to make the hard ones.
Tom Motherway