How about India? Expanding Indian influence inside the country would confront the jihadis with a powerful, westernized enemy capable of maintaining the sort of long-term presence that we can’t muster.

He hopefully doesn’t mean direct intervention here, which might be rather difficult for a country in the midst of military modernization with a (proportionately) small gendarmerie and armed forces to call on.

India had a hard time in Sri Lanka and its deployment there irritated both/all sides in the conflict; would Indian involvement really win friends in Afghanistan in the short term, in light of the fractious nature of local politics? The Naxalite issue and others like it suggest that India has a lot on its plate at home and may not wish to get so deeply entrenched in Afghanistan.

Then there are the sheer physical challenges; the logistical difficulties would be problematic for most nations deploying to Sri Lanka but can’t see them being any easier in the Hindu Kush.

India’s support for the Northern Alliance raised some hackles in Tajikistan and the other ‘stans, since Shah Massoud assisted the predominantly Islamic opposition during the lengthy, nasty civil war there.

Allah, your knowledge of the situation/history is really poor – they ALREADY are in an anti-Indian alliance with the Taliban – they always have been.

We supported the Northern Alliance and Ahmed Shah Masood when Clinton HAD ZERO problems with Benazir/Paki military establishing the Taliban in Afghanistan… of course 9/11 happened and Pakistan had to pretend that it turned against its own creation.

Why dont you pick up David Sanger’s book “Inheritance” and read the chapter on Pakistan and its conduct during the last 8 years in the WOT..

Let this be on Obama’s head, not the good General’s.

We waste $800 billion in the stupid stimulus.

I don’t think of him as wimp. I think of him as probably worse. He doesn’t connect with real people.

He can do this politically.

And, btw, phony talk won’t work with me, either.

AnninCA on November 30, 2009 at 6:06 PM

His problem is that he doesn’t see any political upside for going all in, even if he did believe in it. Obama’s real problem with connecting with others is that he’s never really been in a position (until now) where he had to show concrete results under real circumstances. Kind of like how business professors rarely make the jump to the upper echelons of business – the classroom (where Obama is most comfortable in a figurative and literal sense) is far different than a position where your actions and decisions have real consequences. In the long run, I believe that this is what will sink Obama and his presidency in the next 12-24 mos. Specifically, his idealistic plans simply won’t translate positively in the real world. And his opponents will have an unimpeachable source of those promises and plans – Obama himself.

I am not sure that “relating well to others” is the best test to give to win your vote.

Exit quotation from veteran war reporter Tom Ricks, passing on advice from a friend: “If he uses the phrase ‘exit strategy,’ or dwells on the subject, then you’ll know you’re probably looking at a one-term president.”

Err, so you’re suggesting that we want presidents to make military decisions based on the effect they will have on their political fortunes?

#30k

HondaV65 on November 30, 2009 at 4:18 PM

#0k over 12 months and no change in the ROE is going to be a Charlie Foxtrot. Its just stupid.

Obama already comes across as somewhat of a wimp and this delay and probable half-hearted sales job can only reinforce the obvious.

volnation on November 30, 2009 at 6:01 PM

I don’t think of him as wimp. I think of him as probably worse. He doesn’t connect with real people.

He can do this politically.

I am now voting non-partisan, but my key testing point is how they really relate to real people.

And, btw, phony talk won’t work with me, either.

His true will is what matters.

And people have good reason to question this!

AnninCA on November 30, 2009 at 5:32 PM

I don’t think that there is any doubt that his heart isn’t in this (hence the prolonged delay in the name of “analysis”) and if he doesn’t really believe in it, he won’t be able to sell it, even if he does indeed have a tongue touched by angels. Obama already comes across as somewhat of a wimp and this delay and probable half-hearted sales job can only reinforce the obvious.

Tuesday night the President will reveal his much anticipated plan for continued US efforts in Afghanistan. Reports are swirling around the Hill and across the net and mainstream media as to what the President has decided to do after nearly 100 days of…

booter on November 30, 2009 at 4:20 PM

Thank you, booter! Glad I’m not the only one who has been unprecedentedly irritated since way before the election
by obooby’s constant use of the word “notion” along with “folks” and of course, the forever and irreplacable, “I”, “me” and “my”. A close second of course is his use of “a” instead of “an” before a word which begins with a vowel. “An” also should be used before words starting with the letter “h”, as in, “obooby has treated us all to an historic presidency, stuffed to the gills with pomp and pratfalls, lyrical speeches and lies numbering in the thousands.” Make that tens of thousands…

He thinks the war is lost anyway. 5 buck says he tells everyone when he is going to bring them all home.

milwife88 on November 30, 2009 at 5:46 PM

No way. That would be honorable.

He’ll send them, without his real leadership.

That is going to be his sin of his presidency. But this one won’t be one you can say, “I regret.”

This one is the big sin.

I’m thinking something along the lines of the trickery they’ve been pulling in tabulating all those created and saved jobs.

SPCOlympics on November 30, 2009 at 5:38 PM

That is what I am thinking…his math is different from any other politician I have ever seen.

The real issue is that we do not win anything when we’re not led by someone with conviction.

He doesn’t have that.

I’m thinking something along the lines of the trickery they’ve been pulling in tabulating all those created and saved jobs.

Not that he really needed a lot of help in that.

MAKE. UP. YOUR. DAMN. MIND. MIC*

MIC = Moron In Chief.