Obama and We View the Truth
By Jeffrey Page
We have a president who’s not afraid to let the American people know the true meaning of battlefield casualties. They’re not just a number listed in six-point type in the newspaper. They’re not the nameless people that some talk show hosts posthumously thank for making the ultimate sacrifice – praise from armchair warriors who managed to never spend a day in uniform and who know nothing about sacrifice.
Earlier this year, Barack Obama lifted the ban on news organizations photographing the flag draped coffins being carried off the planes at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. That was the image George W. Bush hid from the American people. Bush may have misunderstood a lot, but was sure of one thing: Repeated pictures of soldiers being brought home in coffins would raise questions that, despite the idiotic certitude of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, Bush could not answer.
How long?
How many more?
For what?
Now, Obama’s military commanders want up to 80,000 more troops to continue the war in Afghanistan and because he promised a decision soon, he’ll probably have to answer those questions. His deliberation, of course, is what the appalling Dick Cheney had in mind when he accused Obama of “dithering.” How much misery might have been saved had George W. Bush given more serious thought to war and death instead of just plunging ahead like an elephant in heat? Because here we are, eight years later, still trying to crush the elusive Taliban.
(We must never forget that the invariably wrong Cheney bleated to America as the Iraq war started, “We will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.” That he said of the Iraqi foe in 2005, “I think they’re in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.” That in 2005 he said America was “firmly committed” to the Afghan democracy.)
Democracy? Our men and women are still being killed in Afghanistan. And to what end? For President Hamid Karzai’s challenger to drop out this week because no one can be sure that Karzai’s government would have allowed a free, fair election?
Last week, President Obama did what Bush chose never to do. He traveled to Dover in the middle of the night, stood at attention with military officers, and saluted the latest return of coffins.
It took only a day for the Nut Right to have at him. Rush Limbaugh dismissed Obama’s salute as a photo-op, forgetting that the president is the commander-in-chief of the military. Photo-op? Could be. But I checked: If Limbaugh ever dismissed as a photo-op Bush’s landing on the aircraft carrier in his soldier outfit six years ago to say combat operations in Iraq were over, I missed it.
Photo-op? I’m proud of this president for making that short flight to Dover.
There’s a but of course.
But if he decides to continue the fight in Afghanistan, Obama must answer the questions that Bush never would. How much longer will America remain in Afghanistan? Why must there be more coffins at Dover if Karzai believes democracy begins and ends with himself? And how will America know when it has won or when it has lost?
Obama can’t be vague. To dance around these questions would invite utter contempt from the very people who support and admire him.
Jeffrey can be reached at jeffrey@zestoforange.com
Tags: Jeffrey Page
November 5th, 2009 at 12:36 am
Great piece, Jeffrey. Obama would do well to remember the fate of LBJ, who would have been better off “dithering” than continuoulsly sending more troops to Vietnam.
November 6th, 2009 at 12:58 am
At the risk of being labeled “a Godless Commie,” I have to ask the question that’s been buzzing around in my brain for quite a while now: Is it possible that democracy – even Democracy with a capital “D” – just isn’t for everybody? Could it be that other forms of government might work better for other places in the world? Could people have been governing themselves effectively since ancient times in ways other than democratic? Is there a faint chance that perhaps the rest of the world doesn’t see democracy as the official God-approved system of government? I wonder if the people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam and a few other countries ever think about this.