After the news broke last night that Barack Obama had rejected all of the options presented to him on how to proceed in Afghanistan, John Bolton blasted Obama for failing to provide leadership on the issue. The conflicting leaks coming from the White House shows weakness and division, which strongly hints that Barack Obama has not exercised any control over the debate in the War Room. Bolton calls this a “slow motion train wreck” (via The Right Scoop):
Bolton makes the good point that Obama has been working on this for almost four months, not two or three. However, Bolton doesn’t point out that Obama has been pushing a counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan for almost three years, and committed the nation to it eight months ago. Resourcing and strategy should have already been clear. The leaks don’t just show dissension among the President’s staff, which always happens, but flat-out ignorance of what COIN meant, a point the Washington Post confirmed a month ago.
The big problem here isn’t a show of vacillation or even of weak leadership, although those are secondary problems. The real damage has come from an unmistakable display of incompetence and lack of preparation. Tossing out all of the options derived over months of analysis at this late date underscores that conclusion. If the President couldn’t get one good option from all of this time contemplating the Afghanistan navel, then Obama needs to replace his West Wing team with people who are competent and informed.
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