Listen.
I could go on all day about how America can't afford this war, either morally or financially. I could point out how the controllers of the war are pretty much the same cast of miscreants that G.W. Bush relied on for nearly 8 years in both Iraq and Afghanistan. It would be easy enough to scream that 300 soldiers have died this year alone in the land where empires go to die, ostensibly to chase 100 al-Qaida cave dwellers who will most likely never be be found - at least not by conventional means.
It's not those issues alone that place me in opposition to this "good war". In fact, prior to this past Tuesday evening, I was on the fence. I was ready to be convinced that sending more scores of troops into Afghanistan was the right thing to do. But very shortly after President Obama started his speech, he lost me and any tepid support I may have had for the war - perhaps for good...
There was a sentence in the second paragraph of Obama's remarks that initally perked up my ears. Why? Because it relied on a significant omission to make a selling point:
To address these important issues, it's important to recall why America and our allies were compelled to fight a war in Afghanistan in the first place. We did not ask for this fight. On September 11, 2001, 19 men hijacked four airplanes and used them to murder nearly 3,000 people.
Yes. And:
15 of the men were Saudi Arabian nationals
3 were United Arab Emirates nationals
1 was an Egyptian national
There were no Afghan nationals onboard any of the hijacked flights. There were no Iraqis. There were no Iranians. There were no Pakistanis. But then, you knew that already. "So what?", you might ask. "Bin Laden did most of his recruiting in Saudi Arabia, but had to have a state sponsor for his operation. He found that in Afghanistan, with the Taliban. Your argument is not relevant."
I disagree. The climate for the political and religious development of the 9/11 jihadists was, in fact, fostered in Saudi Arabia, not Afghanistan. I think it is very relevant, particularly since none of the countries who supplied the hijackers have suffered even minor sanctions or repercussions. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.
I was very uncomfortable with the tenor of the speech from the start. It was almost like I was reliving the late fall and early winter of 2002 / 2003 again - visions of Colin Powell at the U.N. and Iraqi WMD's were dancing in my head, and I squirmed in my chair. Then came the fifth paragraph:
Under the banner of this domestic unity and international legitimacy -- and only after the Taliban refused to turn over Osama bin Laden -- we sent our troops into Afghanistan...
At 3 minutes and two seconds into the most important speech of his presidency, Barack Obama lost me. Why? The Taliban did not refuse to turn over Osama Bin Laden. While it may indeed be true that the Taliban was not negotiating in good faith for turning over Bin Laden in the years prior to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, by October 14, 2001, Mullah Omar and his gang were willing to do anything necessary to save their skins. And the Bush administration rejected all offers other than the Taliban unconditionally surrendering Osama bin-Laden and the leadership of al-Qaeda.
Did President Obama tell a lie in order to justify the points and decisions further into his speech? I guess that reasonable people could parse his statement forever. And ok, so maybe it's not an outright, overt, you know, Rovian lie - but it's sure stretching the truth - enough so that I felt the same linguistic chill that ran through me as I watched Colin Powell's presentation to the U.N. prior to the invasion of Iraq.
The bottom line is that it wouldn't have mattered to me very much what the president said in the rest of his speech this past Tuesday evening. After the first three minutes, the remainder of his justification, and therefore the plan itself for future U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan, was little more than Iraq-tainted noise echoing between my ears.
When someone has to justify a life and death decision by stretching the truth and cranking up the John Phillip Sousa orchestra...
Perhaps it's the wrong decision.