Obama: Ich bin ein Ditherer ... We shall dither in the Oval Office. We shall dither on the plane to Japan. We shall dither in the PRC. We shall nevah undither!
Advance To The Rear!
It’s not quite a strategic retreat, more of a retreat into strategizing as Obama dithers about the dithering, informs his national security team it’s back to Square One. Scratch everything, back to the drawing board. He wants to stop thinking about the war until he can figure out the peace part. OK, that may not be exactly how senior administration officials put it, but at this point, inaction speaks louder than words. via MSNBC:
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, a senior administration official said Wednesday.
That stance comes in the midst of forceful reservations about a possible troop buildup from the U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, according to a second top administration official.
In strongly worded classified cables to Washington, Eikenberry said he had misgivings about sending in new troops while there are still so many questions about the leadership of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
AP fails to note that Eikenberry commands no troops in Afghanistan. AP also fails to note that the United States just got finished congratulating Hamid Karzai on his big election win.
But the president raised questions at a war council meeting Wednesday that could alter the dynamic of both how many additional troops are sent to Afghanistan and what the timeline would be for their presence in the war zone, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss Obama’s thinking.
Never mind whether he’s going to commit more troops. He isn’t ready to commit to whether he’ll commit to commiting more troops. This part is fun:
Military officials said Obama has asked for a rewrite before and resisted what one official called a one-way highway toward war commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s recommendations for more troops. The sense that he was being rushed and railroaded has stiffened Obama’s resolve to seek information and options beyond military planning, officials said, though a substantial troop increase is still likely.
Ha ha, his resolve to keep dithering has been stiffened! Good one. AP scribbler with a keen sense of irony or AP scribbler without a clue?
(Well, in fairness, even if the president did declare back in 2008 this war was a vital national security interest, and he did signal last spring he was on board with counterinsurgency, and even if he did appoint Gen. Stanley McChrystal to get the job done in May, the general’s recommendations only arrived in August, and the president didn’t look at them until, what, late September, and he’s been really busy this whole time letting Congress bollix his health-care initiative, throwing Eastern Europe under the bus and flying to Copenhagen, that kind of thing, so he’s only been able to squeeze in seven high-level national security meetings, or is it eight? Is it so unreasonable to ask for new options on top of the new options that he asked for on top of the new options that McChrystal gave him? Meanwhile, China’s ass wants kissing and then we’re into the holidays … )
OK, I get that the political piece is vitally important, and for Eikenberry, up to his armpits in scheming warlords and bureaucrats in Kabul with his frontline diplomats daily engaged in pitched and desperate note-passing against an entrenched corruptancy, the light at the top of his own well probably is awfully dim and far away. This is a highly complex situation. Thinking outside the box, maybe it does make sense to put the cart ahead of the horse. It is intriguing, though, that in the middle of a hot war in which a determined, murderous enemy is making gains, there are ”options beyond military planning” that are so pressing that they actually trump military planning. Sounds like the president, in a show of resolve, wants to signal more firmly to Karzai and the scheming warlords that the United States is prepared to hold its breath until the Afghan people turn blue, or that the United States might even take its bat and ball and go home. Also, to signal to the United States military that he won’t be pushed around if it kills them.
One bright spot, in the Vietnam avoidance agenda. Remember how they accused LBJ of picking targets from the Oval Office? Can’t accuse Obama of that. He’s actively not picking targets from the Oval Office.
Blog Post of the Day: Andrew Sullivan … “We have a president.” Reverent intoning re the presidential qualities of indecision. Includes moving artful photo meant to represent Obama in full dither:
Wow … that really makes not knowing what the heck you’re doing look like a spiritual experience.
Hey, wait a minute. “We” have a president? ”We” who? Sullivan’s a Brit. A pommie bastid. A limey from Old Blighty. Chim-chiminy chim-chim cher-ee. Bob’s yer uncle. Tally ho, wot? God save the Queen/And her fascist regime/There is no future … Get your own damn dithering prime minister or Lord Mayor or Prince of Wales or whatever.
AP, meanwhile, explains there’s strength in dithering.
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s drawn-out decision-making on Afghanistan is sending messages. To the Afghan government: Clean up your act. To the Pentagon: I’m no rubber stamp. To the American public: More troops can’t be the sole answer.
Obama has been accused by some Republicans of “dithering” about whether to send more troops and deepen U.S. involvement in an increasingly unpopular war.
The slow process also has left him open to critics who recall his pronouncement in March, after developing what he called a “stronger, smarter and comprehensive” Afghan war strategy, that the situation there was “increasingly perilous.” He ordered more troops to battle then, with little discernible result so far.
This time, he’s making it clear he won’t be rushed. Or pushed. And the way the messages he’s sending play out could help determine whether the war effort is sustainable in the long run.
Wow. That really makes dithering sound like statesmanship.
OK, some great moments in historic dithering:
We few, we happy few, we band of ditherers. For he who changes his mind with me today shall be my dither …
Four times two years ago, George Bush brought forth on this continent a war, that I am now stuck with. Now we are engaged in a great bi-partisan incivility, testing whether any president so stuck, can long dither …
Never have so few dithered so much for so long …
We shall dither in the Oval Office. We shall dither on the plane to Japan. We shall dither in the PRC. We shall nevah undither!
A dither that will live infamy!
Ich bin ein Ditherer …
Mr. Gorbachev, at least please think about opening that wall for half an hour or so, let’s say every other Sunday. No? Uh, never mind.
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