Obama Needs a Clue on Afghanistan

Obama just finished giving his speech to West point cadets about why he approved a troop surge of 30,000.  After having watched the speech live, I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or be infuriated with Obama's hypocrisy, particularly in light of the fact he promised during his campaign that he wouldn't do anything of the kind. 

The President was already off to a terrible start when he invoked 9-11 as the primary reason as to why we should be supportive.  For one, at the beginning of the decade, Al Qaeda did indeed have a stronghold in Afghanistan.  But since American troops came into Afghanistan, Al Qaeda has retreated into Pakistan and has enjoyed the protection of a relatively stable nation with over 176 million people and nuclear arms.  More important, a great majority of 9-11 was not planned in Afghanistan.  Most of the planning either happened in Germany and the United States, where they obtained a Western education and learned how to use our technology against us.  Using 9-11 to score political points is just dishonest.

My second main issue with his speech was the actual proposal--a 30,000 troop surge that will solve Afghanistan's problems within 18 months.  I can understand that setting a deadline will put pressure on the military to get goals done rather than putzing around, but at the same time, this is worse than Herbert Hoover trying to fix the stock market after Black Tuesday, i.e., "too little, too late."  30,000 troops isn't going to cut it!  You need way more than that.      

Third, Obama's prioritizations are less than reassuring.  First of all, if you're really set on eradicating Al Qaeda, why not go after Pakistan?  Why are we worrying about nation-building in Afghanistan when have to worry about building up our own nation, that's dealing with double-digit unemployment and the worst recession since the Great Depression?  If Obama were truly worried about national security, why doesn't he go after Iran with such zeal?  Rather than spend time and effort on a fool's errand, as Rep. David Obey (D-Wisc.) put it, we should just prepare for troop withdrawal and intelligently focus our efforts elsewhere.