McCain Feels ‘Sympathy’ for Obama on Afghanistan

Although I agree with McCain & Rice, I don’t think this President is capable of devising a winning strategy. He has had several months now to convey that strategy and so far the only war aim we have is killing Osama Bin Laden. This is not a strategy. I don’t want any more young American men & women dying in a country as desolate as Afghanistan. Until we have a commander in chief who actually knows what that means, we need to pull our troops from that country before the KIA count climbs any more.

To the person who thinks our president is not capable of handling the conflict overseas, all I can say is, Thank God you aren’t in charge. If everything were as simple as you make it, we’d have won a year ago and Bin Laden would be dead.

All the time Republicans and Democrats do is to follow their party views blindly…..come on guys open your eyes wide and think independantly.
become and independant :)

No President has ever had an “easy” term, but some have had it a lot harder than others. President Obama doesn’t have it as tough as President George W. Bush did in the aftermath of 9/11 and he clearly doesn’t have it as easy as President Clinton did in the 90s, but he does have advantages and disadvantages. His advantage is that his party is in total control of government, so many of his (and his parties) interests were achieved, like the Stimulus Plan that paid off a lot of political allies and supporters. The disadvantage is that his party is in total control of government, as they are 100% responsible for things don’t live up to public demands. The economic crisis was created over several Administrations and will continue, as this Administration has done little to prevent future abuses. The Attorney General hasn’t indicted those who created this financial mess and no steps are being taken to prevent companies that are “too big to fail” from requiring bail outs in the future. While the President is trying to please everyone, he is pleasing very few and his popularity will continue to wain if he doesn’t start fixing the problems. He and his party created the current Health Care debate at a time when our economy is is shambles…a wound that he could have opened when the economy turns around. Oh, well.
As for Afghanistan, the President replaced General McKiernan with the current Commander, General McChrystal and his plan to refocus efforts on success in Afghanistan. Now, the President is obviously listening to the left-wing of his party and distancing himself from his campaign promise to listen to his Commanders in the field and to succeed in Afghanistan. The events of 1993, Somalia and Health Care Reform, are repeating themselves, if we are not careful.
While most people only keep track of current information, I add it to the entire historical record. My memory is long, but politicians know that I am in the minority, and as long as this is true, they will continue to manipulate the nation for personal gain.

I wonder why the word “sympathy” is in quotes. Is the media suggesting that McCain is not sincere. He sounds sincere to me. Maybe the article needed a different headline. The media is a big part of the problem and rarely part of the solution…

Senator McCain is sincere and would like to see President Obama do what is in the best interest of our country, not the left-wing of the Democratic Party.
talmag: you can have your opinion about President Bush and Iraq, but history and the needs of our nation going forward are in stark disagreement. Saddam had to be dealt with or today, he would be an unrestrained threat to the region, after leaving the U.S., Britain and the United Nations as a whole, discredited. If you don’t undertand what I am talking about, you didn’t do your homework. In 1998, the head of the U.N. Humanitarian Effort in Iraq, Denis Halladay, resigned after about a month in office, protesting that the sanctions and embargo were killing the Iraqi people, NOT the regime that refused to cooperate with UNSCOM II per the Cease-fire Agreement and UN Resolution 687 to disarm. Had Saddam complied from the beginning, sanctions and the embargo would have been removed with a couple years or so. Anyway, this was the beginning of the inspection process and the lead up to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Had he not been removed, he would discredited us in the eyes of public opinion in 2003, as he would have exhonorated by Hans Blix and UNMOVIC as not having WMD and we would have been blamed for keeping sanctions on years after we should have removed sanctions. How powerful would he and his regime be today…unfortunately, we will never know for certain, but we were definitely losing in 2003 and while the results may not have been what this generation of “instant gratification” expected, but it was necessary and historians 20-50 years from now, will eventually reach that conclusion.
You reach your own conclusion, but if you are not looking at the whole conflict and weighing benefits and consequences for action versus inaction, you are doing yourself and others a disservice.

Gary: and what has this to do with Obama? The Iraq war will never be considered a war of necessity. It was a war of opportunity…we did not win it….the people were not happy with us and they still don’t like us even after spending money and too many lives. We will get out but there is no joy in this war and my heart aches for the people who were led to believe this would bring democracy. It really has not and what remains to be seen is what will happen when we are all gone from the area. The Iranians did not ask for our help and were very angry when we bombed their homes and destroyed their economy. This is the first time America invaded a foreign country and we need not take pride in this. The only sad thing is the lives lost….

Gregg: I think we have only two options, if we are serious about protecting our nation, allies and vital interests around the world. We can either provide the forces and equipment necessary to finish the job of nation-building in Afghanistan and using it as a launching pad to destroy Al-Qaeda in Pakistan; or we leave the country and adopted a sustained bombing campaign, primarily using UAV’s, with a Quick Reaction Force near by in case we need to recover pilots or sensitive equipment, take prisoners, collect intelligence, etc. I think option #2 is bad for Public Relations, as we will undoubtedly kill a lot of civilians caught in the crossfire, but we can’t allow Al-Qaeda to reestablish training bases there again.
The President has tough decisions to make, but I don’t think this is a tough choice. He just needs to put doing what’s right ahead of his party and getting re-elected.