http://www.peterbronson.com/?p=386 Barack Obama must have been one of those kids in grade school who never tore his pants in a knock-down, roll-around, playground brawl. Otherwise he would know that the one-punch theory is mostly a myth.
“First punch wins the fight,” is the way it goes. But it doesn’t usually go that well. For one thing, the first punch can miss. Second, one punch is seldom enough and only makes some guys fight harder.
And third — worst of all — it is doomed to failure if you announce your intention: “I’m going to swing once then go back in the schoolhouse, so you better give back my lunch.”
Ridiculous.
Somewhere in a smelly cave in Afghanistan, a bearded bluto who thinks he is the king of the Taliban is laughing. “Sit tight,” he says, chewing on a greasy goat hoof. “They’re sending more troops, but only for 18 months. This president Obama can’t wait to call time-out and quit.”
Sure enough, Obama is sending 30,000-something troops. Fewer than his generals requested. But what do they know compared to a community organizer like Obama and his stellar “war council” of Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.
Obama’s speech was as transparently political as his war plans. Throw a bone to the angry anti-war left, but send the troops because the alternative would tattoo “surrender-monkey loser” across his own forehead – and indelibly confirm the peacenik reputation of the Democratic Party. But — promise to get the troops out in 18 months, just in time for Obama’s re-election.
But 18 months is hardly a blink for Afghanistan, which has been street-fighting with the rest of the world since Kipling was in boot camp.
And speaking of history: For 30 years, liberals have called every military action by the United States “the next Vietnam.” And for 30 years, they have been wrong and wrong again, from Grenada to Bosnia, from Lebanon to Iraq.
But like the boy who cried wolf, this time it could be true — and the whole village is ignoring the alarms. We have a president who is micromanaging the military, refusing to give them what they need to win, afraid to even use the word “victory,” unwilling to even discuss the war without an “exit strategy.”
Nobody can deliver one roundhouse knockout punch like the U.S. military. But it would help if Obama had not told our enemies that we will throw in the towel after one round.
