Obama Vindicates Bush, McCain and Palin on Afghanistan

Despite United States President Barak Obama’s policy of blaming every problem on former President George W. Bush, he has vindicated Bush – once again – by following his polices. Obama’s immediate processor as Commander in Chief had increased troops in Afghanistan and supported a troop surge and counterinsurgency strategy there similar to the one in Iraq.

Obama had predicted the Bush’s troop surge in Iraq would fail. When it became obvious that American policy in Iraq was achieving much success, he attributed these successes to other factors, which was a tacit acknowledgement that the pre-surge situation in Iraq was not nearly as bad as critics of the Liberation of Iraq, like Obama, had insisted. Nevertheless, Obama’s Afghan troop surge is another vindication by him of the President he succeeded.

Obama has also vindicated Republican presidential nominee John McCain, whom Obama defeated, who had long called for the surge for Iraq and had since also been calling for one for Afghanistan. Finally, Obama has vindicated GOP vice presidential nominee Governor Sara Palin of Alaska. During the vice presidential candidate debate, when Palin observed that a leading general had recommended a surge for Afghanistan similar to the one in Iraq, Democratic vice presidential nominee Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware insisted that he had not, even though Palin had made clear that the surge in Afghanistan would not be exactly the same as in Iraq, but tailored to reflect its differences. The liberal media, whose storyline by this point had become that Palin was ignorant because she had been unable to answer ABC news reporter Charles Gibson question that had mislabeled the Bush Doctrine, accepted Biden’s correction of Palin as fact. In fact, Palin was correct and Biden wrong, both in terms of the accuracy about the general’s statement and the merits of the request for more troops. Now Obama has rejected Biden’s opposition to a troop surge for Afghanistan.

During the presidential campaign, Obama painted himself into a corner by constantly contrasting Iraq and Afghanistan as the good war and the bad war, respectively, even though both removed militant Muslim regimes that sponsored terrorists who targeted and killed Americans. In addition to being necessary for American security in order to prevent the Taliban from retaking power in Afghanistan (See also my post, Victory in Afghanistan is Critical), Obama thus rhetorically obligated himself to fight the “good war.” The Commander in Chief is right to make the decision not only to continue the fight, but also to implement a troop surge and counterinsurgency strategy. Conservatives must continue to urge Obama, however, to fully commit to a policy of victory.

In my next post, I shall analyze Obama’s Afghan troop surge strategy and compare it to Bush’s troop surge in Iraq.