President Obama summoned a rare bipartisan contingency to the White House this week to discuss strategies the administration should consider in fighting an increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan, as well as how quickly it must do so to protect U.S. forces already on the ground. But he made one point abundantly clear — we’re not leaving!
A strong partisan split was evident following a meeting attended by 30 lawmakers from both political parties. Opinion polls show only a small minority of Americans believe the Afghan battle is worth fighting, and much of that opposition comes from within the Democratic Party. Members of the GOP are pushing for the President to invest heavily in the war until we achieve victory, while Democrats believe Afghanistan is another Vietnam War in the making. Vice-President Biden has questioned whether the Afghan government remains viable after a flawed Aug. 20th presidential election, while Republican leaders challenged the administration’s determination to defeat the Taliban. The meeting was highlighted by a pointed exchange between the President and his former rival Sen. John McCain, when trying to make the point that “time is not on our side,” McCain advised, “This should not be a leisurely process.” Visibly aggravated, the President responded “IT WON’T! No one feels more urgency to get this right than I do.” Conflict was further elevated when Defense Secretary Robert Gates directed all military and civilian government personnel to stop publicly airing their advice offered to President Obama regarding Afghanistan. This in spite of a recent public relations fiasco where Gates publicly took one stance on the war, while National Security Advisor Gen. James Jones took another.`
During a joint appearance afterwards by Democratic Congressional leaders, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said “The one thing that I thought was interesting was that everyone, Democrats and Republicans, said [to the President] whatever decision you make, we’ll support it basically.” But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi smiled and raised her eyebrows in apparent disagreement, saying “Whether we agree with it or vote for it remains to be seen when we see what the president puts forth. But I think there was a real display of universal respect for the manner in which he was approaching it.”
The truth is, I don’t know nearly enough about this very complicated and very serious issue to speak with any clarity or credibility.And I seldom pay polls any mind (positive or negative) except for Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight.com. IMO, he sums up this particular dilemma correctly: Excerpt:Pretty thorny. There are divisions between the parties, divisions within his own party, and divisions among the American public more broadly. A new Quinnipiac poll shows how divided and discouraged Americans are. Though a 52 percent majority think "the war is the right thing to do," 37 percent do not and by only a 49-38 percent margin do they think the war there will successfully remove the terrorist threat to the U.S. (I cannot help but pause here to note that critics of Obama's health care reform who say the public option is unpopular with Americans ought to be reminded that public support for the… Read more »