If someone had told me last November that I’d be listening to Barack Obama justify a troop increase in Afghanistan by evoking 9/11 and boldly discussing an imminent threat to American security posed by cave-bound people with no shoes and the oppressive regime of the Taliban I would have laughed hysterically and then gone back to making fun of how John McCain says “Warshington”.

I was late to the Obama party because I felt like he was a bit of a showman and was running for president on his personal story more than his ability to lead. Slowly but surely, however, he convinced me, and loads of others, that he was the real deal.  I disagreed with some of his domestic priorities but voted for him and supported him feverishly on the basis that on matters of foreign policy, he would be a genuine liberal, and bring a totally different approach to the international stage.  Gone, I thought, were the days of chicken-hawk saber rattling and fear mongering.  

I argued with anyone who would listen about the wisdom of the Iraq war and continued presence in Afghanistan.  The thing that bothered me most about all of our forays was that I was debating the merits of a war aimed at bringing freedom to people 10,000 miles away with people whose hardest decision in life was deciding between going to Stanford or Harvard business school.  I am certain that none of my friends would spend five minutes in pursuit of a stabilized Iraq or take a bullet to ensure free and fair elections in Afghanistan but they are more than willing to puff of their chests and make the case about why other children should die in the name of America’s “security”. 

During the campaign, I cringed whenever Obama mentioned Afghanistan.  Part of his stump speech was about the importance of Afghanistan and how our resources had been drained from Iraq and have hence left dangerous unfinished business in Afghanistan.  I heard the words, but stupidly, assumed they were political cover for an effete liberal sissy who was still trying to win the hearts and minds of 50% of the country who thought he was a Muslim bent on burning down the White House.  Shame on me for thinking Obama was above donning a lapel and a red tie, adopting a dour tone, and telling us to be afraid.   

Last night, Obama The Cowboy, fed us the same line of romanticized military horseshit melodrama we heard from Baby Bush for more than six years.  Sure, it was couched in prettier language about multilateralism and The United Nations but it was the same crap, the same tired approach, and the same disastrous strategy of pretending there is a strategy that will fix Afghanistan and prevent bloodshed upon our departure. 
 

Since hyperbole is seldom productive I'll simply say that this week, Barack Obama officially drove his presidency off a cliff. Instead of focusing on his ambitious domestic agenda that is hanging on by a thread, and a health care bill that has roughly the strength of a Pat Buchanan presidential run, he’s off for another foreign boondoggle of death and waste.  What’s more, he officially endorsed Bush’s Money Pit and its costs in lives and dollars are officially on his hands.

I can see the future, and the future is immense political pressure to remove our troops from harm’s way in summer 2011 per last night’s promise.  The future is also a speech, just like we heard last night, a speech reminding us that we were attacked more than a decade ago, a speech creating a new reason to steal more young lives for a futile exercise.  I’d be shocked if that speech isn’t in our future, but if it’s not, the future is a Republican contender hammering Obama on jeopardizing our troops to fulfill his political promise, or leaving a festering threat in a far away land.

The good news is that Afghanistan is no threat to America security. What it is, is a mess with no clear ending, as are all similarly wrong-headed notions about the prospects of nation-building and civil-war meddling.  The sad news is that it’s a danger to the same people who have been in danger for the last decade, the same people who “volunteered” to run around in the dessert getting shot at by people who may or may not be on their team.

It used to be that we fought when we were threatened.  It used to be that we all took the burden on our backs and got behind the effort.  These days, all it takes is a speech about how our way of life might be in danger and it’s off to the races for other people’s children.  I wonder if Barack Obama will consider joining my law firm in 2012, because there's a significant chance he won’t be our president.