Academic

OBAMA?S AFGHANISTAN PROBLEM: ?Obama will buck public opinion if it is for a liberal-base issue, suc?

By Glenn Reynolds

OBAMA’S AFGHANISTAN PROBLEM: “Obama will buck public opinion if it is for a liberal-base issue, such as health care and cap-and-trade. But his problem on Afghanistan is that it is both unpopular with the public and an anathema to his base. Moderates and conservatives will support him on Afghanistan, since they think stabilizing the country is necessary, humane, and doable, but they are those whom he has so far ostracized and caricatured on other issues, and may not wish to reach out to. So his options and time are limited.”

Related: Frank Rich, Afghan War Hypocrite. “We are experiencing a festival of liberal hypocrisy on the Afghan war, as all the left-wing doves who touted the war as absolutely essential for years back off now that it’s no longer a politically convenient war. . . . So when did circumstances change? When did al Qaeda basically leave Afghanistan so the Taliban is the real worry there and the chief home of the terror group is Pakistan? If you read Rich literally, it must have been sometime between August and today, because Obama didn’t just come to the presidency saying Afghanistan is a necessary war, he said it at the VFW last month. But circumstances changed? Again, when?” When it was convenient, of course. Once again, we must distinguish between ?bourgeois truth,? which is concerned with sterile facts, and ?revolutionary truth,? which is concerned with what will promote the revolution. Rich clearly has transcended mere bourgeois truth. . . .

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on September 28, 2009 (boomark / email).