Stephen Sestanovich describes Obama as a “retrenchment” president akin to Dwight Eisenhower or Richard Nixon—leaders elected to scale back the country’s overseas commitments. That seems to me not quite severe enough a judgment. The better parallel is to Lyndon Johnson fighting wars “he believed to be unwinnable” (as Goldberg describes Obama). Sending soldiers into harm’s way when you consider their fight pointless must weigh heavily on the conscience.
Yeah, the president's conscience is the problem. Not the lives wrecked by sending troops to fight and die in a war that we don't try to win.
I did note that President Obama had taken the lead in wars, so he isn't the anti-Bush as his supporters suppose he is.
And I did wonder why President Obama would order two surges in Afghanistan that drove up our casualty count tremendously only to needlessly risk defeat by pulling our troops out too soon.
Our troops have the right to expect that their nation will send them to win when their nation sends those troops to fight and die.
