OUR PRESIDENT SPEAKS AGAIN

Like millions of Americans, Tuesday evening I viewed President Barack Obama’s teleprompter assisted speech announcing his decision on our future course of action in the Afghanistan War. I suspect you will be surprised to learn that I endorse his plan to send an additional 30,000 brave young American troops to strengthen our fighting forces in this historically god-forsaken pest hole. I agree, too, that we must address the aggressors at their source before they can strike again here in the United States.

Before you get the impression that I have had a total conversion to the smooth talking utterances of our President, let me assure you that I am totally opposed to his announced plan to start withdrawing forces from Afghanistan in July, 2011. Anyone who ever served our country in the military (Obama and most of his inner-circle never have) knows full well that one never tells the enemy what, when, and how you intend to fight a war. Tragically, our President has again made decisions based upon political considerations, and failed to send a strong, clear message that we are there to win. Already today his spin stooges are working to negate the concerns being expressed by Congress and Americans across our country.

For a man with the educational background that is so frequently referred to, I continue to be shocked by the degree of naïveté he displays. As I recently wrote there is a right way to address an issue and there is a political way, and again our Chicago trained President has chosen to bow to political pressures in hopes of maintaining his popularity with his political base. When you are fighting a war and are the president, you have taken an oath to represent all the people and not just your political supporters. Our brave soldiers are not political fodder.

Another issue that peeves me significantly is Obama’s continued disregard for growing financial waste. Why was it necessary to spend many millions of dollars to give the speech at West Point, and not in the White House? His action to fly substantial resources at great expense to West Point was nothing but a politically motivated photo opportunity. Our President has again thumbed his nose at the American public’s growing concern about our financial debt, and has yet to provide one single indication that he intends to fulfill his campaign promise to review line by line all expense items. Obama is just like the old Southern Senator I personally heard say…”Son, just because I said it doesn’t mean it is so”.

Obama’s actions will result in the death and lasting injury to hundreds of fellow American fighting men and women, but telling the enemy what we intend to do defies historical reality. This hell hole must be confronted once and for all, but historical reality should tell our supposedly scholarly president that these people have been fighting among themselves since before the time of Christ, and they will continue to do so into the future. Conquest after conquest has not changed the tribal in-fighting over the centuries and Obama’s approach disregards that fact.

Lastly, as I have addressed in previous essays, where was any mention of the blatant production of poppies in Tuesday's pronouncement? If Obama is so concerned about placating the local population he cannot permit the continued cultivation of poppies that directly leads to death and destruction back here in America. Since we are financially propping up a corrupt government why can’t we tell them the drug game is over NOW, not at some date in the future? It is time to burn the damn poppy fields to the ground or else it is apparent that the fix is in.

Anyone who thinks American troops will be coming home in 2011 is simply consumed by wishful thinking. It is not going to happen, because we apparently do not have the will to win under this current leadership. If that is really the case then we should start coming home now, and save hundreds of American lives. Our President is taking us down the path of massive spending in Afghanistan, nation building that won’t work, and is disregarding historical realities.

It is one thing to be a humanitarian, and it is another to be deluded. The Taliban and Al Qaeda are sitting comfortably in their caves this morning. They will wait until 2011 while they kill our soldiers and then come back stronger after they refill their pockets with a flood of American aid dollars.

I pray I am wrong, but this time I think I will live to tell my opposition that I told them so. Fortunately I am smart enough to not tell you what I really think we should do in this rectal area of the planet. Just remember that old statement, “Nice guys don’t win ballgames,”

COMMANDER GRANGER