Credit Where Credit's Due

This might not make me very popular among my fellow conservatives, but I have to call things like I see them.   Whether you think of Obama as the most radical tax-and-spend liberal to hold the office since WWII (and he is) or if you think he's the weakest leader in times of crisis that we've had since Jimmie Carter (and he is) or if you think he's the antichrist (he might be) or if you think he's a Muslim (he's not) you, or at least I, have to give him credit where it's due.

Under the list called “Things Obama's Done Right” pretty much the only thing I have listed is the War in Iraq. I know, I know. That's a crazy thing to say. I mean how can I say that I think this bleeding heart, academia manufactured, personal liberty hating leftist did a good job handling a WAR? Didn't I know that when he was running for Senate he was an outspoken opponent of the War? Didn't I know that he didn't support the very surge he now credits for the success (for lack of a better word) in Iraq?

Sure I did. Obama wasn't president then. Senators and Presidents are completely different branches of government and the things they say, and the things they do, about any given situation reflect the differences in their responsibilities and roles in government.

If we're going to place ownership of the economy on Obama after 18 months in office, then we have to give him ownership of Operation Iraqi Freedom as well. Obama might have in his heart of hearts a disdain for the Military but once he took the reigns of the war he did the only thing really reasonable, which was nothing fundamentally different from his predecessor. He left Bush's generals and Secretary of Defense in place, kept up the funding for the war and maintained the troop surge. To my observations he's never done anything at all that I perceive as being less than honorable toward the troops who have sacrificed, served, and died for their country. His handling of the war in Afghanistan to me is no different. He's announced a similar troop surge in Afghanistan for the purposes of giving the Afghan government the room they need to get established. Who did he appoint to replace General McChrystal? The guy that Bush had running the war in Iraq, General Petraeus, whom Obama actually demoted from CENTCOM commander for that move. He'd done nothing to deserve a demotion, but clearly, and Obama understood this, he is the man for the job.

Afghanistan is going to be no easier than Iraq. Our expressed enemy there is the Taliban, which isn't a political party. It's not a group of terrorists, or a rag-tag group of insurgents upset at the forces occupying their country. Taliban is a sect of Muslims; a philosophy and teaching. To truly defeat them we'd have to kill them all and anyone they might have influenced, destroy all their literature and teachings, obliterate every recording they'd made. It'd be like declaring war on the Pentecostals. Then we'd have to rebuild the Afghan society in such a way that their extremist message is no longer appealing to those who live there. Obama's words and his actions (two things often at odds when it comes to politicians) indicate that his Afghanistan strategy will be no different from Iraq.

Obama's actions and rhetoric as a Senator and candidate may have bellied a typically anti-military liberal, but his actions as Commander-in-Chief have shown that he recognizes that Bush was doing the best that he could.   For not pulling the plug on Iraq, and not departing radically from the doctrine established by the Bush administration, I have to give President Obama his props. Score one for Barry.

That makes the score 1 point for Obama and about a 147 against. This will in no way change my opinion of Obama as one of the worst presidents we've ever had. If he's not the Antichrist, he's certainly the Anti-Reagan. But in this one instance he's done OK.