A Democrat wonders what the heck is going on
Tina Brown has some observations about President Obama’s recent communications:
whenever Obama makes an important policy speech these days he leaves everyone totally confused…White House envoys are being dispatched all over the globe to explain what the president really meant about the date when troops will or won’t be pulled out of Afghanistan. Hillary, you go to the Hill! Take Gates and Adm. Mullen with you. Holbrooke, off to Brussels! And you, Gen. Petraeus, you go on 360 and hit Anderson Cooper with jargony dog whistle caveats like “the pace of the drawdown is conditions-based.”…
I have come to the conclusion that the real reason this gifted communicator has become so bad at communicating is that he doesn’t really believe a word that he is saying. He couldn’t convey that health-care reform would be somehow cost-free because he knows it won’t be. And he can’t adequately convey either the imperatives or the military strategy of the war in Afghanistan because he doesn’t really believe in it either…Obama all but held his nose as he delivered those words — “bring this war to a successful conclusion” — and never once mentioned the word “win.”
For the US, Afghanistan is all about lousy alternatives. However, the President didn’t have to make matters worse by the farce of trying war criminals in civilian courts, or by prosecuting Navy SEALS who beat up terrorists. Mirandizing enemy combatants and trying soldiers for trivialities are crazy decisions that make it impossible to wage successful war. Tina Brown’s piece shows how obvious the cognitive dissonance of this administration has become to persons at each end of the political spectrum.