Afghans to Obama: Great job on those timelines, buddy

When Barack Obama announced timelines for drawing down troop strength in Afghanistan, the administration pretended that the cutoff dates would incentivize the Afghan government to push its reforms and ready its security forces.  Everyone else knew, though, that Obama included them in order to quiet his anti-war base, a strategy that was as ineffective politically as it was obvious.  Unfortunately, that left the Afghans holding the bag, and now they have told the White House that those artificial timelines have the Taliban biding their time rather than surrendering, and that they have “invigorated” the enemy:

The Obama administration’s plan to start withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in the summer of 2011 is giving a morale boost to the Taliban, Afghan officials said Wednesday, echoing remarks made by a top U.S. military official a day earlier.

“This is giving more reason and propaganda for the anti-government elements to prolong the fight,” Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimy said of President Barack Obama’s timetable on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

“Such assertions could be used in favor of insurgents for … empowering their forces and giving reasons to fight,” he said. “The withdrawal should be based on the capability of the Afghan security forces.”

At least it answers one question from the Iraq war.  When George W. Bush announced his surge strategy, Democrats lined up to oppose it, including then-Senator Barack Obama.  When the Bush administration requested funding for the surge, Democrats demanded that timelines be established for withdrawal, a demand that Bush refused to meet.  The administration argued then that timelines wouldn’t encourage the Iraqi government to hasten its formation of a government but would instead provide a boost to the terrorists in Iraq — and perhaps push the Iraqi government into acquiescing to them.

Well, Democrats have been in charge of Afghanistan since January 2009, and they got their timelines in this war.  We know how Iraq turned out.  How’s it looking in Afghanistan?  Not terribly well from the Afghan point of view, obviously.

In order to counter this, Obama will have to give a rather forceful public statement about the timeline being condition-based rather than calendar-based.  That, however, will make his political base unhappy, who have already started to sour on Obama over the war.  Given their unhappiness on the issue and their apparent sullen acquiescence being based on the hard timeline, Obama may have to choose between winning a war and keeping the Left engaged enough to show up in the midterms, both at the polls and in GOTV efforts.

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