President Announces Afghan Strategy

After months of debate President Obama will unveil his Afghanistan strategy at the West Point Military Academy. Right now it looks like the president will inform the American people that an additional 35,000 troops will be surged into Afghanistan and employed as part of General Stanley McCrystal’s comprehensive counterinsurgency strategy. Right now as being formulated the president is following into the same predicament as President Bush in the first couple years of Iraq until he unveiled his surge strategy.

Both administrations perused and will peruse a strategy of wanting to win but at the same time advocating withdrawal in the same breath. This approach only emboldens our adversaries and will lead to defeat. Islamic terrorists have articulated that America is a paper tiger and all we have to do is wait them out and they will withdraw like they have in Vietnam, Iran, Lebanon, and Somalia.

The president needs to stop projecting an image of weakness and adopt the rhetoric that President Kennedy stated in inaugural address, “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. "

President Obama must articulate tonight an aura of confidence and strength that we will succeed in Afghanistan. If he is timid and unsure then this will strengthen the insurgency and further weaken our resolve and further hamper efforts to have our European allies contribute additional forces.

Embrace the comprehensive approach of his generals on the ground and not second guess seasoned generals who are experts in counterinsurgency warfare. The strategy put forward by General McChrystal was put together by a comprehensive strategy group that had impute from uniform and non uniform personnel across a broad spectrum of experts.

This will be the defining theme of this president, does he have the fortitude too stomach the rough patch ahead or does he crumble in the face of adversity! The future is in his hands!