-By Dan Scott
The recent spat over comments made by Michael Steele, the chairman of the GOP demonstrates the sensitivity of the MSM regarding their love child Barack Obama. The slobbering love affair the MSM has had with Obama is now on it last gasps; the honeymoon is just about over. The MSM and pundits would love you to believe this is about Michael Steele when in fact this is really about the continuing incompetence of President Barack Obama as viewed from the left.
This is what Steele said:
“Keep in mind again, federal candidates, this was a war of Obama’s choosing. This was not something that the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in,” he said. “But it was the president who was trying to be cute by half by building a script demonizing Iraq, while saying the battle really should be in Afghanistan. Well, if he is such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that’s the one thing you don’t do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan?”
Obama does own the Afghanistan war as he campaigned for it in the primaries and in the general election. His entire argument against the Iraq Surge was that the US should be fighting in Afghanistan. What Steele recently said was just poorly worded and as such he should be chastised for a poor rhetorical performance.
Where Steele misfired in his comments was to seemingly imply that we never should have gone into Afghanistan in the first place. Clearly, if Steele had a teleprompter he wouldn’t have made that mistake, but of course Barack Obama can screw up when he doesn’t have a teleprompter, it’s expected he screws up and gets a pass. Apparently, like Joe Biden, if you gaffe enough, your gaffes are no longer gaffes. The beauty of the teleprompter is the script is vetted for the message, impromptu remarks allow no such planning. What’s really going on here is that the Democrats are desperate for a distraction from the INCOMPETENCE of Barack Obama as perceived by his left wing base. They are playing a moral equivalence game, same old game just a different storyline. For this reason I must completely disagree with those who lend credibility to this storyline on the conservative side by giving the storyline as a distraction the legs the Democrats so desperately need.
The other generalization Steele made about Afghanistan is inaccurate as they have not always been successful in fending off invading armies much less occupation forces. Mark Twain said, “all generalizations are false, including this one.” Afghanistan was certainly invaded and occupied many times over the millennia.
Steele is correct in an embarrassing way that, “This was not something that the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in.” After the US kicked out the Taliban, we left Afghanistan in the hands of NATO to focus on tamping down al Qaeda in Iraq. Afghanistan lost the benefit of our focus and therefore valuable time in consolidating its newfound freedom. We should have been busy with training their army and police forces to govern themselves, but under NATO command and responsibility, it was taken for granted Afghanistan was a done deal, thus squandered the opportunity they had. NATO basically was shown for the farce that they are, they played soldier, they liked flashing their uniforms and they road around in vehicles until it became too dangerous, then US forces had to take command to stabilize the situation and play catch up.
Given the recent comments of Senator Liebermann that General Petreaus is being encouraged to make the case for more troops and stay past the July 2011 deadline, Obama’s lunatic left fringe base is going to go ballistic. The subliminal dig by Steele being ” a war of Obama’s choosing ” is not going to sit well with Obama’s base making them feel even more betrayed than they already are. Hence, the liberal MSM has responded by flying cover for Obama by attacking Steele on some inane mischaracterizations. The liberal MSM is far more sensitive about the lunatic left fringe than we are. I submit for all you GOP Steele bashers that they immediately saw the danger of Afghanistan being labeled “Obama’s War” sticking. Their attack upon Steele was purely a move to distract Obama’s base with inane argumentation. Will Obama’s base fall for it?
Here’s a little hint for you all, just as we as conservatives are very unhappy with McCain’s self serving support of conservative issues when he is afraid of losing his Senate seat, the Obama Administration is equally afraid of losing the support of the lunatic left fringe base BECAUSE that’s where their money comes. They are already mad at him for his use of the predator drones killing people. The idea the Afghan 2011 deadline is a fiction like the Iraqi pull out, is not going to go over well given the deadline for Guantanamo Bay long since passed. This is just another broken promise all of which demonstrates there is no difference between Barack Obama and George W Bush. Obama once again has failed to deliver and that is incompetence as far as the Left is concerned.
References:
The History of Afghanistan
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Dan Scott calls himself a “Member of the Global Capitalist Cabal preaching Capitalism and personal responsibility as the economic solution to world poverty.” He is also a member of the 14th Amendment Society — victimhood is a liberal code word for denying the civil rights of others. He is also a proud member of the Global Warming Denier Cabal, insisting that facts not agendas determine the truth.
Dan can be reached for comments at dscott8186@yahoo.com.
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