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Gutsy
Weekly Standard Blog —
... that the pragmatic course is to pull back in Afghanistan. But President Obama recognizes in Afghanistan what the previous administration only belatedly recognized in Iraq: that the only way out is forward.
Kagan has some criticism for the president, too, but today the overwhelming sense is one of relief -- that Obama has stepped into the breach and claimed this fight as his own, and that he's set U.S. forces on the path to victory.
Read the whole thing here.
Obama's Afghanistan Plan Revealed
Newshoggers.com —
... that supports Obama's plan. I say unsurprising because there was already a general consensus that Afghanistan was an occupation that the U.S. needed to keep doing among right, centrists and interventionist left. If anything, the pro-occupation right are the most uncritically approving of Obama's plan. It's amazing how few of them note that it's a further repudiation of the hard right's "for us or against us" war on everything. To them, it's all black and white hats. Robert Kagan calls it a "gutsy decision" and Max Boot, the neocon who has been most obviously ...
On the Other Hand
Weekly Standard Blog —
Some conservatives have been cheered by the announcement of Obama's Afghanistan policy (see Kristol and Kagan) but Tom Donnelly criticizes the counternarcotics component of the strategy in a post below, John McCain told the Washington Times that Obama's plan was "not enough," and a Republican emails THE WEEKLY STANDARD with this broadside:
The speech was classic Obama -- all show no substance. He announces 17,000 combat troops in a press release but announces 4,000 traniers in a big ceremony. He accepts the Bush ...
Is Obama a Warmonger?
Pundits Blog —
... ) There will be no seeking peace with this new president. In fact, it may be time to recall the old phrase from the ’60s: “warmonger.” Robert Kagan loves Obama. “Hats off to president Obama for making a gutsy and correct decision on Afghanistan,” he writes in The Washington Post . “With many of his supporters, and some of his own advisers, calling either for a rapid exit or a ‘minimal’ counterterrorist strategy in Afghanistan, the president announced today that he will instead expand and deepen the American commitment.” There is also some logic to the administration’s ...
Conservatives Claim Credit for a Strategy they Opposed for Years
democracyarsenal.org —
... is clearly pleased. Bob Kagan praises the president for standing up against those who wanted a minimalist approach. Christian Brose writes about the left ...
