Ending Without End

Music? Quickly assessing current events, I see an Alinsky-like effort by the Obama Administration to marginalize and eventually end the war in Afghanistan, while not upsetting either their left-wing constituency, or the right-of-center America.  In fact, I see the Administration presenting a quick and easy three-step process on how to end a war, without actually ending a war, regardless of important decisions on troop strength.

1 – Dither.  No matter what your decision may be, the later, the better.  Tardiness distracts, and over time, desensitizes your detractors.  Specifically, have your hand-selected General present four plans for combat forces, and ostentatiously reject them all.  Go abroad (ie, to Asia) to forget about your troubles.  Demand health care and energy reform upon return.  Announce a troop strategy, and scurry to Copenhagen to talk about windmills before the White House Press Corps can catch you.

2 – Make history by having your Attorney General try the world’s worst war criminals, like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in a civilian court, preferably in traumatized New York City.  Doing so will effectively criminalize the war and confuse troops on which course of action to take with enemy combatants.  Are our troops at war, or are they a glorified police force, arresting and reading Miranda rights to the enemy?  Who cares?  Let them figure it out.  Most importantly, have the court proceedings put the previous Administration and the CIA on trial.  Blaming others will deflect attention from your own shortcomings while troops are quagmired.

3 – Capitalize on an event like the Fort Hood Massacre by ignoring facts, and instead ask questions like why Major Nidal Hasan would do such a thing.  Imply psychosis and “Second-Hand PTSD,” a term that does not exist, but hey, you’re the President, so feel free to make it up as you go.  By turning the former watchdog media into your lapdog, you can further support the terrorist by implicating soldiers on the ground of war crimes (see last night’s CNN Report, “Killings at the Canal.”)  This will most certainly kneecap the warfighting efforts, frightening troops from (gasp!) hurting the poor little terrorists in their sad little caves.

By these means, Mr. President, surging troops into Afghanistan won’t really matter at all.  40,000 troops?  Why not surge 200,000 troops?  You could even try out the draft to send every 18 to 25 year old male to war.  It won’t matter, after all; if the approach is incoherent, we will never win.  Your left-wing base will be content that our enemies aren’t getting hurt, and the center-right majority will be under the impression that “you’re doing all you can” to bring the enemy to justice, in New York City, or Chicago, or Houston, or Arlington, or anywhere.  Anywhere but GTMO, of course.

The judgment to bring KSM and Friends to a civilian court in New York City is a particularly peculiar case, transcending reason, as there is no judicial precedence for doing so.  If you missed Senator Lindsey Graham stumping our fearless Attorney General over this decision in a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting, see video.  He speaks for me.

What I’m saying is this:  There are long-lasting effects of seemingly simple political decisions that troops on the ground will be forced to deal with.  If you think the message sent to the world to be bad - that we will treat attacks on civilian targets as criminal acts, and not acts of war – if you consider that bad posturing, what do you think the effects of our President kowtowing to every foreign dignitary he comes across might be?  What message does this send to other nations?

The President has no reason to apologize, bend, bow, or “recant American hegemony,” a position thrusted upon us, as the world’s only unilateral power that never strived to be a unilateral power.  The world has continually placed its bets on the United States of America, relying on us to bail them out over and over again.   Consequently, we dip our flag to nobody.  We’re not the Beta Dog here, rolling over to expose our throats to the Alpha Male, much less to the emperor of a country who’s Constitution we wrote, the first-born son of the man who engineered Pearl Harbor.  And if that’s right-wing hubris, so be it.

Stand upright, speak thy thoughts, declare

The truth thou hast, that all may share;

Be bold, proclaim it everywhere:

They only live who dare.

~ Voltaire