THE AFGHAN TRAGEDY - AT 8:23 P.M. ET:  President Obama specifically said during his election campaign, and after, that Afghanistan was a war of necessity.  He cannot take back those words.  And yet, every signal he sends negates that clear position.  Apparently, now that the president must face the fact that he's not running a student government, the war has become much less necessary.  His endless delays and waffling are taking a toll.  From The Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown have turned the focus of Afghan war planning toward an exit strategy, publicly declaring that the U.S. and its allies can't send additional troops without a plan for getting them out.

The shift has unnerved some U.S. and foreign officials, who say that planning a pullout now -- with or without a specific timetable -- encourages the Taliban to wait out foreign forces and exacerbates fears in the region that the U.S. isn't fully committed to their security.

And, let's face it, under this administration the U.S. isn't committed to anyone's security, including our own.

"It's not a good idea," said Rep. Ike Skelton (D., Mo.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

He is a Democrat, and represents Harry Truman's old home town of Independence, Missouri.  Skelton's remark demonstrates something we've reported - the new willingness of Democrats to criticize Obama.

"When the area has been stabilized...then it's time to go home. But to set up a timetable for people in that neck of the woods, they'll just wait us out," said Rep. Skelton, a prominent supporter of proposals by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Kabul, to send more troops for a counterinsurgency campaign.

McChrystal has already been marginalized by the administration, which hand-picked him only months ago.

Look, it may be that all this talking and agonizing will result in a workable policy.  It's the result that counts.  But the constant image sent out - what Walter Lippmann called "the picture in our heads" is of weakness and indecision.  Nothing encourages an enemy more.

There is much talk among the chattering classes that President Obama doesn't want Afghanistan to turn into his "Vietnam."  That's become pretty standard rhetoric in some circles.  It's fine - if you get an understanding of Vietnam right, which most on the left don't.  As I was reminded in a personal conversation with a Vietnam-era fighter pilot a few days ago, we never lost one engagement in Vietnam.  The war was never lost on the battlefield.  We lost through defeatism, disturbingly inaccurate reporting, and a deflation of political will.

The part of Vietnam that we're seeing now is that part, the loss of will, not battlefield problems.  Yes, of course, there are serious issues involving military action, strategy, and tactics.  But it's the political side that is now placing success in doubt.  So Afghanistan can indeed become Obama's Vietnam, but for reasons other than what the president thinks.

November 20,  2009