Praise is coming in from unexpected quarters for Barack Obama's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan.
First it was Karl Rove praising President Obama's upcoming announcement to send more troops to Afghanistan. Now it's Dan Senor.
Senor, a former senior adviser and spokesperson in Iraq during the Bush administration, said he applauds Obama on the decision he has made on the way forward in Afghanistan.
msnbc First Read: More strange bedfellows on Afghanistan
And criticism:
While Karl Rove and Dan Senor are applauding the White House's decision on Afghanistan, liberal MoveOn is criticizing it.
msnbc, First Read: MoveOn blasts WH on Afghanistan
The RNC held a conference call today with the media in which Dan Senor, a former Bush spokesman in Iraq, applauded the White House and said he was "quite encouraged by the president's decision."
"It sounds to me based on what we know that it is a very good decision and I applaud him [for it]," Senor said. "If you would have said to me that a year into this administration that he would have doubled our troop presence in Afghanistan... Plus not reduced our troops meaningfully in Iraq. And if you had told me he would have fired General [David] McKiernan and replaced him with General [Stanley] McChrystal (a surge proponent)... I would have had a hard time believing it. So I am pleasantly surprised."
Bush Officials, RNC Praise Afghan Knowledge And Surge Strategy
Moveon completely disagrees:
Dear MoveOn member,
President Obama has ordered about 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan-a military escalation of the war there.
After talking to MoveOn members about this possibility for months, it's become clear what most of us think: This is wrong. Everyone knows that George W. Bush left a mess in Afghanistan, but escalation only deepens our involvement in a quagmire.
It'll cost the lives of thousands of American troops and Afghan civilians, and it won't make us safer. And with urgent priorities like health care, the climate crisis, and a struggling economy to tackle here at home, it simply does not make sense to divert billions more dollars to this war.
More and more foreign policy experts are coming to the conclusion that military escalation is not going to solve the problem in Afghanistan. And the majority of Americans already oppose the war. So today the President needs to hear from those of us who disagree with his decision.
Today, can you call the White House and tell the President that we want him to focus on bringing our troops home, not escalating our involvement in Afghanistan?
Discuss? Why is the world topsy turvey?