Marathon Pundit: Prince Hamlet Obama still dithering on Afghanistan

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Prince Hamlet Obama still dithering on Afghanistan

"Like Shakespeare's Hamlet, President Obama can give a great speech. But like the doomed prince, as Charles Krauthammer brilliantly pointed out, Obama cannot make up his mind about important things. Such as the war we are fighting in Afghanistan.

Here's what Iain Martin wrote in today's Wall Street Journal:

But time is getting on. He has been President for 10 months now and still the world waits. What will eventually emerge? The semi-surge of 30,000 troops with full deployment not for at least a year looks like his favoured option. Or at least it did when it seemed he was going to make a long overdue decision. Now? Who knows?

The danger is that this drift erodes allied confidence and strengthens the hand of those who want America and Britain defeated in Afghanistan. Enemies such as the Taliban are able to smell weakness, and so are America's allies. In Britain the war effort is misfiring, as the public grows disenchanted over casualties. A strong lead from the U.S. might still change the situation, but one starts to doubt it after this latest delay.

As Obama continues to ponder what next, it may well be that he is so worried about being the next LBJ that he forgets the record of another Democrat president. One who could not grasp why being seen as weak abroad leads to so many problems. Who didn't understand how to respond to aggression and made poor diplomatic decisions. Perhaps it’s not Johnson he should be worried about being compared to, but Jimmy Carter.