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I believe that Republicans are poised to cement their complete opposition to everything Obama and reap a huge political win by twisting their political principles to oppose further escalation of troops in Afghanistan. Unless, of course, Obama can be convinced not to send more troops.
Obama’s decision about whether to send more troops in Afghanistan is expected on December 1st, and he may well be going with an increase of around 30,000 towards a war we don’t have a way to win.
We’ve reached a crucial juncture. More troops to Afghanistan would be a disaster, both over there and politically over here. Can you sign the petition urging Obama to rethink Afghanistan strategy and not send more troops? For every signature we get, CREDO Mobile will generously donate $1 to the blog fellowship that supports Derrick Crowe and his anti-war work. (For a bit more about Derrick’s work, click here.)
Click here to sign the petition, add your voice, and support Derrick.
Politically, this issue is about to turn on its head. America has a strong anti-interventionist streak, which Republicans lost when George Bush invaded Iraq. A majority of Americans think we should stop sending more troops into Afghanistan. Republicans see an opportunity, a way back to this popular position by opposing Obama, and they’re ready to take it. The writing is on the wall.
In the past few months, more and more influential, movement conservatives have come out against Obama’s policy or future plans for Afghanistan. They hail from all parts of the party – moderate and neoconservative – and from all walks of political life – pundits to elected officials. What they have in common is a skepticism to the idea that the Afghanistan war is worth more troops.
Here’s the rundown:
- Senator Chuck Hagel: "Iraq and Afghanistan Aren’t Ours to Win or Lose"
- Former Presidential candidate Fred Thompson: "The war in Afghanistan ‘has been lost.’"
- Former talking head Lou Dobbs: "Bring our troops home."
- Conservative columnist George Will in the Washington Post: "Time to get out of Afghanistan"
- Republican Congressman Tim Johnson: "Take immediate steps to begin a responsible withdrawal from Afghanistan."
- Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher: "We owe [the troops] our best judgment, not just an easy answer of sending more military people into a conflict."
- Republican Congressman Peter Hoekstra and John Shadegg: "If the Obama administration’s priority isn’t providing our troops with the tools to do the job and win, we shouldn’t be there."
- Conservative columnist Tony Blankley in Humane Events: "The president has three choices: 1) Cut and run, 2) cut and walk or 3) stay and fight with enough troops. Either No. 1 or No. 3 may be justifiable based on hardheaded thinking. No. 2 is an evasion of reality and sinfully would sacrifice American troops for no good purpose."
- Richard N. Haass, Council on Foreign Relations president under Bush Sr. and Jr.: "Defining success down on Afghanistan."
- Conservative columnist Andrew C. McCarthy in the National Review: "Our troops are not in Afghanistan for a social experiment."
- Malou Innocent and Christopher Preble at the CATO Institute: "U.S. Must Narrow Objectives in Afghanistan"
Though the views represented in the list above are not yet mainstream conservative thought, the list is full of influential conservative thinkers who will have a say in how the party moves forward on the issue. And the list is by no means exhaustive.
If Obama isn’t careful, Republicans will shortly outflank him on the issue. They’ll grab the mantle of non-intervention – a populist position which has large numbers of supporters in both parties – and start appealing directly to the majority of Americans who think we should stop sending more troops into Afghanistan, or even start withdrawing.
That’s why it’s so important progressives stand up on the right side of this issue. Progressives are the anti-war people, and the Democrats should be the anti-war party. Republicans outflanking Democrats on this issue would be disastrous politically as more Americans sour on the war and its leader.
As you know, Derrick Crowe has been writing about getting out of Afghanistan for the last three months because of a blog fellowship The Seminal and Brave New Foundation awarded him. We’ve been fundraising to allow him to continue getting the message out to progressives for another year.
Thanks to blog readers here at Firedoglake/The Seminal, as well as our friends around the web, we’ve raised over $1,000 for Derrick. Now, CREDO Mobile has generously offered to give us $1 for every signature they get on their petition calling for President Obama to rethink Afghanistan strategy and not send more troops.
By signing this petition, you do two things: Make your voice heard to the administration and pressure them to do the right thing on the Afghanistan war, and help support a progressive anti-war voice in the blogosphere, Derrick Crowe.
Click here to sign the petition.
Thank you for your support. Hopefully together, we can get Obama on the right side of this issue, if not by his announcement than shortly thereafter, before Republicans step up their opposition and grab back the populist, anti-interventionist mantel they lost when George Bush invaded Iraq.
The course in this war must be changed, for the world’s sake, our security’s sake, and for to sake of our continued majority in Congress and the Executive branch.
9 Comments
Obama’s speech and his ‘supposed’ decision about Afghanistan will reveal far more than the war strategy in Afghanistan. For those who watch with careful eyes it will reveal EMPIRE.
The decision will be voiced through the mouth of Obama to be sure — but the decision was already made before he was president, in fact before he even ran, and the decision itself was made by the EMPIRE.
America, our country, is now part of an arrogant, unresponsive, un-democratic, but quite sophisticated ‘Vichy’ Empire —- which only pretends to allow the people to have any influence over any choices, directly, or through their supposed representative government.
This fact of sophisticated and guileful Empire manipulation and trickery of the people was well documented in 1994 by Thomas Frank in his “What’s the Matter with Kansas” — showing how contrived social ‘values’ manipulation was used by the Empire-controlled ‘Republican Party’ to trick stereotypical anti-intellectual conservative Kansans into voting against their own interests.
But now the coin has been flipped, and we need Frank to write a new book, “What’s the Matter with Massachusetts” in which he would lay bare how the Empire-controlled ‘Democratic Party’ tricked stereotypical self-described liberal “wicked smart” Bostonians and supposedly highly educated intellectuals into voting for a second well educated (and now post-racial) president promising different ‘values’, but singing the same songs about “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow” and waving banners of ‘hope’ and ‘change’ — which have now been ignored with the same level of contempt and impunity as the last several Empire-controlled Republican and Democratic shills — who did exactly NOTHING they promised!.
When such obvious contradictions to a government structure of supposed democracy occur many times in a row, but with both supposedly different political parties, and with differing levels of sophistication employed to fool dull and bright voters, the issue is not ‘values’ but one of deep ‘government structure’. And the only conclusion to be made is that we are dealing with a deep and deadly problem of ‘government structure’, which Ben Franklin would have immediately recognized as his fear of Empire supplanting a democratic Republic.
“The problem is not with our stars, Dear citizens, nor with this Obama, nor the previous Clinton nor Bush nor Reagan, nor even with ourselves, but with EMPIRE”
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Signed the petition, Thanks, Jason.
Alan: I agree with almost all of what you write. Where I disagree is with your statement Obama’s not the problem. He is a big part of the problem you describe, because he is an agent of the malefactors and a skilled deceiver.
Art45, yes, you have a valid point — that Obama and all of the figure-head deceivers are part of the problem.
Bush, the anti-intellectual cowboy, was very good at bringing the ‘values’ right mid-Americans into the Empire’s web, as Clinton was very good at bringing the (neo)liberal bi-coasters into the fold of the very same Empire.
Each ‘leader’ was an effective carnie barker in their own right. And perhaps you are right that Obama is the best (ie. worst for the country), because he drew in not only the liberals but the next generation, and he is a bit more immune from polite criticism.
However, each successive ‘leader’, president, or selected-shill for the Empire is, ultimately just ‘paid help’ — and, unlike the desperate volunteer Army, the number of ego-enhanced recruits who can be vetted and reviewed for the top spot by the Empire’s Ted Mack amateur hour auditioners (or today’s American Idol’s Simon) like George Shultz’s ‘Vulcan’ recruiting team for dubya, is essentially unlimited.
So if it’s not someone like Obama who walks through the Empire’s casting door — it will be the next ‘hopeful’ kid.
Best,
Alan
Neocons going against the collective wisdom, using the term loosely, of Kristol, the Kagans, Ledeen, et al? I’ll believe that when I see it. These assholes want to see the whole world under the iron heel of Amerika’s boot.
I think it’s just a matter of time.
Like it or not, this escalation is in line with Obama’s campaign promises. He wooed the anti-war crowd with his rhetoric about ending Iraq, promises which he seems to be willing to keep – just perhaps not as quickly as he said. Perhaps we should have paid more attention to what he siad about Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Wouldn’t you know this would be the only promise he keeps…
This is true, but as Jim White says, I’m not without hope that this might change…
Who ever said that Obama is brilliant? He is dumb! He took the right wing bait, and he now has his very own Vietnam. He has lost before he has even begun! I think it first started with his war-like Chief of Staff, but maybe I’m even still giving him too much credit.