President Obama liked to say that President Bush took his eye off the ball by focusing on defeating Saddam and slighting Afghanistan. I think that emphasis was justified, of course, but that is another question.
Since Bush essentially won the war in Iraq and left Obama the task of not losing what was won there, President Obama's vow to win in Afghanistan was a silver lining for me in the 2008 election.
But I've been gravely disappointed by the failure of our president to use his supposedly silver tongue to make the case to the American public for winning in Afghanistan.
Of course, with the president's absolute failure to bolster home morale, American support for fighting the war until we win has dropped dramatically on his watch.
It is tough to avoid the conclusion that for our president, the war in Afghanistan has been the distraction from his ambitious domestic goals.
And now the election is the ball he has his eye on. Does he even care what happens in Iraq and Afghanistan? Or does he only care that bad things don't happen before we vote?
What game is he playing, anyway?
About Me
- Brian J. Dunn
- I live and write in Ann Arbor, Michigan. University of Michigan AB and MA from Eastern Michigan University. One term in the Michigan Army National Guard. Former American history instructor and retired nonpartisan research analyst. I write on Blogger and Substack. Various military and private journals have published my occasional articles on military subjects. See "My Published Works" on the TDR web version or under the mobile version drop-down menu for citations and links.
