Bloodthirsty Liberal

When Vice President Cheney accused President Obama of “dithering” over Afghanistan, people were justifiably outraged.

I say justifiably because dither is not the appropriate word to use in the case of a president weighing his options in matters of life and death.

Dillydally is the mot juste:

Anthony Zinni stepped up his call for the Obama administration to quit dillydallying and send more troops to Afghanistan to fight the insurgency.

A counterinsurgency strategy, he said, would work better over the long run than continuing narrower counterterrorism operations that target Taliban and al Qaeda leaders.

The retired Marine Corps general, who had been the top commander in the Middle East and Central Asia, said the Obama administration needs more forces in Afghanistan quickly. Zinni said his own son was among the troops waiting to be deployed, adding: “I think that we owe them a decision. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why we’re still waiting for one.”

Zinni, who spent considerable time working with the Pakistani and Indian governments while he headed Centcom during the Clinton administration, told the International Peace Operations Association’s annual conference that a counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan could better resolve the nettlesome problems with Taliban and al Qaeda fighters and drug production. The association is a trade group for battlefield contractors; Zinni is chairman of BAE Systems Inc., the U.K. defense giant’s U.S. arm.

…

This time, Zinni had some specific advice President Barack Obama: Americans need to hear a better explanation of why the U.S. is in Afghanistan, on the doorstep of nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India neighbors. “I think the speech that has been missing … is this talk not only to the American public but to the world about what the threats are, what the challenges are and what the concerns should be out there,” he said.

Dear God, not another speech! Anything but that!

Now, Zinni has a history of telling president what to do, sometimes criticizing them for doing too much, here too little.

But when he blasted Bush on Iraq, he was a household name, a published author. This comment is barely audible.

While Obama is letting I dare not wait upon I would like the poor cat i’ the adage, the Taliban know If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly:

Eight American troops were killed in two separate bomb attacks Tuesday in southern Afghanistan, making October the deadliest month of the war for U.S. forces since the 2001 invasion to oust the Taliban.

The president has said… well, let’s get it from the horse’s a—mouth, horse’s mouth:

“While I will never hesitate to use force to protect the American people or our vital interests, I also promise you this — and this is very important as we consider our next steps in Afghanistan: I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm’s way,” Obama said Monday during a visit to Naval Air Station Jacksonville. “I won’t risk your lives unless it is absolutely necessary.”

Okay, okay, take your time. A stitch in time, measure twice, folls rush in, and all that. But can you maybe hesitate a little less and rush a little more?

I won’t use coffins of American servicemen as some kind of prop to stage my little plays—leave that to Code Pink, Jack Murtha, Nancy Pelosi, and other despicable members of the Democratic Party. But I will wonder aloud what the hell this nimrod thinks he’s doing.

He told us he had a cunning plan back in March!

No, I’ll leave it to others who know better to hold the president accountable:

A key U.S. official in Afghanistan has resigned in protest over U.S. policy in the war-torn region, as the Obama administration deliberates its future strategy there.

Matthew Hoh, a political officer in the foreign service and a senior civilian officer in Zabul, Afghanistan, wrote a four-page letter to Ambassador Nancy Powell, director general of the foreign service at the State Department, to express his “doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy,” as first reported by the Washington Post today.

“To put simply, I fail to see the value or the worth in the continued U.S. casualties or expenditures of resources in support of the Afghan government in what is, truly, a 35-year-old civil war,” the former Marine wrote in the emotional letter.

Hoh spent six years in Iraq, where he served as a Marine Corps captain and then as a civilian for the Department of Defense.

The 36-year-old told the Washington Post he decided to speak out publicly because “I want people in Iowa, people in Arkansas, people in Arizona, to call their congressman and say, ‘Listen, I don’t think this is right.’”

(202) 224-3121