Hitchens: Does the left realize Obama’s committing us to endless war in Afghanistan?
posted at 8:48 pm on February 25, 2009 by Allahpundit
Sorry to turn this into Matthews Day at HA. I don’t think Hitch means this disapprovingly — he certainly didn’t two years ago when he defended the prospect of a long commitment in Afghanistan — but things have deteriorated since then, to the point where some NATO countries are now considering asking Iran to provide them with supply routes. As noted last week, if you listen hard you can already hear the first stirrings of leftist anti-war grumbling about “the good war”; Matthews is clearly warming to the thought of giving up, and it won’t take much for liberals as hardcore as Conason to turn. I’m not too worried about Hitchens, though. He recognizes this as a test of wills. And the wills involved aren’t just the west’s and the Taliban’s. Read it and weep.
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Hey, I remember when the left demanded Clinton’s impeachment for abuse of office as they were more concerned about principle then raw political power.
Oh, actually no, now that I think of it they fought tooth and nail to see the Sexual Harasser in Chief stayed in office.
18-1 on February 26, 2009 at 12:56 AM
Does the left remember South Vietnam? One country next to another hostile country, with the U.S. military restricted by where it was allowed to fight the war? And global enemies feeding resources to the oppressive attackers?
HotWeaver on February 26, 2009 at 1:02 AM
Am I the only ONE who heard the “HA-HA-HA” in the background at around 2:35 in the clip after Hitch says “we have to stay in swatting distance of Al Qaeda”…
That seems so obvious I’m surprised no one has mentioned it yet.
SillyRyno on February 26, 2009 at 1:24 AM
Gee, I take that to mean that Al-Qaeda and the Taliban really don’t want to fight anymore and Evil America is perpetuating this conflict on its own?
The Communists shrieked loud and hard about the Iraq invasion as being a move to get oil and make profits for Bush and Co.
How many oil fields are there in Afghanistan? Are there 550 metric tons of yellow cake uranium in Afghanistan?
Or is it simply the place where a large concentration of America’s enemies are and trying to take over? Wasn’t that the point all along?
Dumb to have invaded France on D-Day…the Nazis were from Germany…why invade France?
Liberal logic. Brilliant!
Dr. ZhivBlago on February 26, 2009 at 2:21 AM
If only Nixon wasn’t a crook & the elder Bush didn’t raise taxes.
Then Iran would be our ally & Bin Laden would be in prison.
jgapinoy on February 26, 2009 at 6:09 AM
Hey, aren’t you the governor of Illinois or something?
jgapinoy on February 26, 2009 at 6:13 AM
What utter B.S.
Obama no more “inherited” the Afghan war than he “inherited” federal budget deficits. Obama has been in the U.S. Senate voting for those very same inflated budgets of the past that he now bitches about. He even did everything he could to made them more inflated with his nearly $1 billion in earmark requests, and his sponsoring of idiotic additional spending such as the nearly $1 Trillion dollar giveaway to the United Nations known as the Global Poverty Act.
Obama supported the invasion of Afghanistan from the beginning, and has repeatedly said, both as Senator and as presidential candidate, that Afghanistan is the “real” war that we should be devoting more resources to winning. It is ludicrous for you to suggest that Afghanistan is something that was dumped on Obama, rather than a situation that he himself helped create — just as he helped create our current financial disasters (or have you also forgotten that Obama was one of those race-baiting ACORN lawyers, suing banks to force them to make more sub-prime loans to unqualified minority lenders?).
AZCoyote on February 26, 2009 at 6:43 AM
I voted for Barack to get us OUT OF THE WAR. Why do we have troops in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Why is Barack killing innocent brown men, women, children, and so-called terrorists?
BARACK, STOP THE WAR NOW! QUAGMIRE!! QUAGMIRE!!
JiangxiDad on February 26, 2009 at 7:16 AM
I picked up on that..sounds more like blah blah blah
malkinmania on February 26, 2009 at 7:41 AM
The left is pretending that keeping over 30,000 troops in Afghan is a ho-hum situation, when it purely contradicts the core crux of what they campaigned on.
malkinmania on February 26, 2009 at 7:43 AM
well, if bambi doesn’t give us good supply lines & support, then he will effectively murder our troops in afghanistan. then he’ll leave there, making it all for naught.
kelley in virginia on February 26, 2009 at 7:53 AM
Fear not, word travels slow in 3rd world cesspools; as soon as the islamo-kooks find out Obama is president this will all change.
They’ll trade in their Ak 47s for tamborines and we’ll all be holding hands singing Michael Row the Boat Ashore while Kim Jong Ill strums the guitar.
Alden Pyle on February 26, 2009 at 7:54 AM
Bingo! I am sick to death of him saying he inherited this, he inherited that. He wanted the job so now STFU about what problems he got.
Did we hear Pres Bush moan and groan about what he inherited from Clinton? For that matter…any other president?
becki51758 on February 26, 2009 at 8:12 AM
I can’t possibly be the only one getting the sh:)ts with this.
Reaps on February 26, 2009 at 8:54 AM
Revisionist history on the march. They start this segment with an Obama clip where he says “there is not now, nor has there ever been, a military solution in Iraq.”
Then why did pouring in all of those extra troops, and equipping them with a more effective strategy, reduce the number of Al Queda in the country?
There’s just as certainly a military solution for Afghanistan, if we’re willing to do what is necessary.
hawksruleva on February 26, 2009 at 9:27 AM
If support starts to wane for the effort in Afghanistan it is largely because the effort there is failing. Coming up with a successful strategy is the remedy. Military commanders have suggested that the tactics employed in Iraq won’t fit the situation in Afghanistan.
The Soviets didn’t hold back in Afghanistan. They did seriously attempt to kill everything and that backfired. What exactly are you suggesting as being necessary?
lexhamfox on February 26, 2009 at 11:42 AM
Hitchens reminds me of the reporter-turned-head zombie Matthias in the movie “The Omega Man“.
I can’t really say why, but he just does…
MechEng5by5 on February 26, 2009 at 12:22 PM
Good point. If he’d actually spent more time doing his job as a Senator perhaps he’d realized what the situation was. But he pandered and smoozed to get the job of POTUS so it’s now time to fulfill all those empty promises instead of whining about how tough things are.
katiejane on February 26, 2009 at 1:26 PM
Obama and the democrats are going for broke. They learned the lessons of ’94 and 2000 and that was -”Don’t trust the American people with the electorate”.
They are positioning themselves to never lose another election, no matter how they have to lie, cheat or steal to do it.
Conversely, they have no fear of upsetting the base. Who are they going to vote for instead- Republicans?
Right as Rain on February 26, 2009 at 7:21 PM
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