October 13, 2009
Hey, You Can’t Expect a Nobel Peace Prize Winner to Win a War, Can You?
Gregory D. Lee
President Obama has said that the only option about his new Afghanistan strategy that he will not consider is withdrawing troops from the war-torn country. But after weeks of deliberating Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s recommendation to increase troop funding by as many as 40,000 troops, the president still hasn’t made up his mind whether to honor the general’s request.
Got my reputation to think about.
This should be the easiest decision any president makes. If your commander on the ground assesses the situation as ordered, and concludes he needs thousands of more troops to complete the mission, then give him what he needs. Why would he hesitate?
Anything less will either prolong the conflict or even lose the war. At the least, it will further deteriorate troop morale. Instead of making a decision, the White House floats excuses why troop increases might not occur.
Then he wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
I’m stunned he was nominated for the prize, considering he was in office for only 12 days before the nominations closed. I would hate to think that President Obama purposely delayed making his decision to send more troops to Afghanistan until the winner of the peace prize was announced, but, it looks that way to me. Announcing he will send more troops to kill poor Muslims might have jeopardized the award, or at least embarrass the Nobel committee. If you thought the president had a large ego before winning the Nobel Peace Prize, you can imagine the ego he has now. I was in office for 12 days and won the Nobel Peace Prize! Top that!
Will somebody please tell me what President Obama has done to deserve the Nobel Peace Prize? Even some left-wing bloggers and the Washington Post are dumbfounded by the decision. Ronald Reagan ends the Cold War, defeats the Soviet Union and brings democracy to that country, and he never so much as received a thank you card from the Nobel Committee. President Obama says he wants to expand diplomacy and see a nuclear weapon-free world someday, and he gets the nod.
I’m afraid that with this award the president will not increase the necessary troop level in Afghanistan, and the war will be lost. How would it look for the Nobel Peace Prize recipient to win a war? He thinks that America’s enemy is just al Qaeda, and not the Taliban. He says he has no quarrel with the Taliban and only wants to destroy the al Qaeda. Will somebody please tell the president that as far as the Taliban is concerned, they have a quarrel with him? The Taliban and al Qaeda are joined at the hip in their hatred of “infidels” and would love to bring harm to America. There is no question that if they retook control of Afghanistan they will rebuild terrorist training camps, finance al Qaeda with money from heroin sales and do everything in their power to overthrow the established government of Pakistan.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs recently said that budget deficits had to be considered before a decision to increase of troop levels is made. What nonsense.
Overwhelming force works every time it’s tried. The surge of troops in Iraq obviously worked well, and there is no reason to believe it wouldn’t work in Afghanistan. An increase in troop strength, coupled with a change of the rules of engagement away from political correctness, will go a long way in achieving victory. Once victory is firmly at hand, then the focus can shift to rebuilding and creating long-term stability in Afghanistan.
This should be a no brainer. More troops will secure complete victory sooner. The same number or fewer troops will prolong a war with little hope of winning. If the president does not authorize more troops, then he should order them to pack up and go home, because staying there makes no sense if he does not intend to win.
I suppose that if our Nobel Peace Prize winning president just asked the Taliban to play nice, they will. If that happens, I’ll nominate him for the award next year.
Reader Comments: Submit Your Comment (2)
Jimmy Carter enabled the vast expansion of terrorism and got a Nutty Nobel. Now what to you expect from Nutty Norwegians? More of the same of course!
posted by : Bud
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 08:51 AM
The war in Afghanistan is "lost" no matter what we do because our goals of turning Afghanistan into some sort of pro-Western democracy are just not achievable under any circumstances. We are dealing with a country whose population is thoroughly Moslem. This means that their hearts and minds are dedicated to Islam and Sharia. The only difference between the Taliban and the rest of the Afghan population is that the Taliban wants to implement more of Sharia than the rest of the population does. They all consider Sharia to be Allah's holy law. As Moslems, the Taliban and the rest of the population have far more in common with one another than any of them do with us infidels. We need to find a more efficient way of preventing Afghanistan from being used as a base for international Islamic terrorism.
posted by : Abdulameer
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 02:53 PM
