When you try to please everybody, usually you end up pleasing nobody. There, in a nutshell, as I play amateur psychologist, is the dilemma Barack Obama faces. His fatal flaw (ask Tiger Woods, we've all got 'em) seems to be the desire to be liked by everyone. And so he placates the people who don't like him, while taking for granted the people who do.
We saw it in the healthcare debate, when he could have stood up for what he claimed to believe in (universal healthcare for all Americans) and probably helped push a much stronger bill through congress. Instead, he tried to placate his enemies, to make them like him, if you will... when in reality, they'll never like him. They'll never return the favor. They are, after all, his enemies.
And now he's doing the same thing with his Afghanistan/Pakistan war strategy. He's trying to please all sides. He's ramping up the military strength, while giving a date when the soldiers will begin to come home. Americans aren't stupid. One of the appealing traits about Obama has been that he doesn't assume we are. Until now.
We know what war is. In the history of our country, we have been at war more often than not. We know wars aren't predictable, that you can't plot them out on paper, like a novel, and then have them turn out that way. We know you can't have it both ways. You're in, or you're out. You win, or you lose. Either that, or you stay in the place the war is being fought forever.
Interesting that Obama never uttered the word 'victory' in his speech. It's apparently not an option. And yet, how are we to inspire the young men and women who fight this war? Usually it's through a belief that we can win. That our enemies will lose. How are they to feel about fighting a war in which victory is apparently not an option?
We saw it in the healthcare debate, when he could have stood up for what he claimed to believe in (universal healthcare for all Americans) and probably helped push a much stronger bill through congress. Instead, he tried to placate his enemies, to make them like him, if you will... when in reality, they'll never like him. They'll never return the favor. They are, after all, his enemies.
And now he's doing the same thing with his Afghanistan/Pakistan war strategy. He's trying to please all sides. He's ramping up the military strength, while giving a date when the soldiers will begin to come home. Americans aren't stupid. One of the appealing traits about Obama has been that he doesn't assume we are. Until now.
We know what war is. In the history of our country, we have been at war more often than not. We know wars aren't predictable, that you can't plot them out on paper, like a novel, and then have them turn out that way. We know you can't have it both ways. You're in, or you're out. You win, or you lose. Either that, or you stay in the place the war is being fought forever.
Interesting that Obama never uttered the word 'victory' in his speech. It's apparently not an option. And yet, how are we to inspire the young men and women who fight this war? Usually it's through a belief that we can win. That our enemies will lose. How are they to feel about fighting a war in which victory is apparently not an option?
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