Barack Obama using West point as his stage to attempt to look credible, (never happen), will announce his Afghanistan decision. An increase of 30-35 thousand troops whose deployment will be gradual over the next year. So this is not a surge but a slow and agonizing deployment which is designed more to prepare for an exit than a victory.

Many who read this do not remember Vietnam and the problems that took place with that war. I am not going to attempt to rehash Vietnam nor try and make comparisons with Obama’s Afghanistan move except for this one observation which I believe applies to the current situation. Lyndon Johnson chose to deploy troops into Vietnam at a slow pace rather than an overwhelming force designed to defeat the enemy and finish the job in victory.

Obama seems to be taking a similar path in Afghanistan concerned more with the Afghan governments problems rather than achieving total victory as quickly as possible with an overwhelming force. If he in like manner follows the Johnson example in prosecuting the war as he is in slow deployment then his next step will be to micromanage rather than allow commanders in theatre do what is necessary to win. Quickly making Afghanistan into a political war.

His reasoning can be nothing more than to appease the 20% of his party who are far left anti-war moonbats who will not accept ANY United States involvement militarily for any situation. Which places Obama by choice into a corner of his own creation trying to politically satisfy his far left base while giving the illusion that he is willingly prosecuting a war as he puts it, “of necessity,” which is quickly getting out of control.

If he was serious about defeating Al Qaeda and the Taliban, then the troop deployment would be fast and overwhelming in order to get boots on the ground in force to win. Obama does not want to win he wants to find a way out while looking like he knows what he is doing. If he had any intention of winning he would not have take more than three months to decide what he would do and it would not have been a slow bleed scenario but a fast effective strategy for victory.

I hope I am wrong in my assessment but history shows that only overwhelming force wins a war. The recent surge in Iraq which has provided victory and stability in what was once thought to be a losing cause proves that quick deployment in large numbers brings success. Numbers will not work unless they are in theatre en mass. That is how a war is won and Obama obviously either does not believe this or chooses to ignore it for political expedience. Judging by his political performance thus far as President my guess is that this decision is based on political expedience and nothing more.

Ken Taylor The Liberal Lie, The Conservative Truth