At the risk of losing my membership in the Obama-mania fan club, I was disappointed by the President's decision to pursue an enhanced military policy in Afghanistan. It seems to me that all the deliberation and "expert" input on our Afghanistan agenda was heavily weighted in favor of the military option from the outset. The decision to announce the Obama strategy at West Point, all but sealed the deal that it would be the same old story from an administration that ran for office promising a different kind of leadership.
Hey, I get the politics. At the end of the day, it is easier to adhere to a status quo policy, than incur the inevitable wrath from the right, had the president opted for a disengagement strategy. But then there was all that campaign rhetoric about "change we can believe in," and it seems like little more than an extension of the Bush/Cheney policies in foreign affairs. Granted, Obama is infinitely more skillful at articulating his position than the Yosemite Sam-like rhetorical style of his predecessor, but in the end where is the fundamental difference in substance?
One can only wonder what must have been going through the minds of the Nobel Peace Prize selection committee when President Obama used the award ceremony as a platform for delivering the latest version of American might makes right rationalization. From the stoic and rigidly impassive looks on the faces of the many dignitaries gathered in Oslo to hear Obama's lecture, we may have witnessed the last American politician to be so honored.
From a domestic political perspective, one can see that Obama is trying to draw more of his adversaries into his centrist coalition by waving the oft-used "Bloody Shirt." Like Lyndon Johnson in 1964, President Obama would love to be able to claim that his bold domestic initiatives are to some degree bi-partisan. And what better way to win over a few skeptical conservatives than dropping more bombs on the barren hills of Kandahar? After all, Johnson did get some Republican support for his Great Society legislation. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, Medicare, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, were all the more valid with key members of both parties signing on. Lots of great photo ops were snapped and the signing pens were handed out by the dozens. All while the Napalm began falling near the DMZ and human fodder was being tallied for that long black wall that now adorns our nation's capitol. For a society that claims to be the world champs in adoring peace, we have an abundance of monuments and statuary dedicated to war.
As President Obama never tires of sharing with us his deep faith in a Christian God, may I so humbly remind him that whenever one chooses to dance with the Devil, the Son of Darkness always gets to choose the music. Perhaps, while buffing his shiny new medal for peace, President Obama might wish to ponder how well LBJ's Faustian bargain worked out for him?
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