It seems that every new President needs a chance to show his resolve and push a few people around. Why would President Obama be any different? Today the President announced "comprehensive" new plan to deal with the "threat" of terrorist that exists in both Afghanistan and… wait for it… Pakistan. That's right; The President has put Pakistan on notice for harboring terrorist. I believe that I am beginning to see some patterns evolve. Bush did the same thing. Granted the country was attacked first, but we took off to Afghanistan as so as we could get ammo in the M4's and gas to fuel the tanks. As soon as we could find a reason, we went after Iraq. Now yes this may have been hasty, but what most people forget is that Bush already had plans to remove troops from Iraq, before Obama took office.
What is so different about what President Obama is doing? And he is not even original. Afghanistan has been done. We went there years ago and are still there. It seems to me that the President really knows how to have his cake and eat it too. First he announces that he is removing troops from Iraq. This sounds good to the uniformed, but is truly more symbolic that it is practical. The president is only bringing a portion of the troops home and the rest are staying to "Protect US Interests" and to "help train" the new Iraqi law enforcement, to the tune of 50,000 US men and women. This leaves about half of the number of troops that are currently stationed in Iraq. The average, to quote our President, "Joe Main Street" has no idea that there is not plan in place to bring home all US forces. But hey! Obama said it, so it must be what we want? Right?
Second, the President is now sending more troops into Afghanistan. So that means all those troops that get to come home and see their families get to go back in a few months, this time to the mountains. With the new push towards Afghanistan, the President has managed to move the focus away from the hated, and focus back on the accepted…War.
As a people we need to realize that we do not need to simply accept what is being fed us by the President's Press secretary. It is important for all of us to realize that we need to keep ourselves informed. If we can manage to do that, than most of us will see that there is not a huge difference between different Presidents. Obama is great at telling us what we want to hear, while Bush could not pronounce the world syllable to save his life. President Bush had his fight, and so will President Obama. There is nothing wrong with that. I don't have a problem with the decision to try to protect the US. What I do have a problem with, is simply accepting what anyone has to say, just because they come from your party. Democrat, republican, black, white, or southerner, we all must stay informed, and then… only then, can we influence the world for the better.
For now, it seems that as long as Bin Laden is hiding in the caves and making video tapes, than we will always have a place to go to show how strong we really are. President Obama will do what he wants, tell the people what they want to hear, and for a while, everyone will be made at Osama Bin Laden and not each other. The real question is… What are we going to do if we manage to catch or kill Bin Laden? Watch out Kim Jung Ill… Here we come!
1 comment:
Another thing I found interesting about more troops being sent to Afghanistan is that there is no current time-table/plan to pull troops out of Afghanistan in the future. It may just end up that all those troops coming home from Iraq are going to get sent right back out to Afghanistan for awhile.
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