Maybe He Was Just on Deadline

There is a condition present in people with traumatic brain injury, specifically frontal lobe damage, in which their social inhibitions are removed and they simply blurt out whatever comes into their minds. I sometimes wonder if Tom Friedman isn’t suffering from something of the sort. In his latest column (on the McChrystal dilemma) he writes:

The ugly truth is that no one in the Obama White House wanted this Afghan surge. The only reason they proceeded was because no one knew how to get out of it — or had the courage to pull the plug.

What? President Obama has done precisely what Candidate Obama said he would with respect to Afghanistan. Consider:

— Back on Aug. 1, 2007, Obama was already talking about the redeployment he would order as president: “Our troops have fought valiantly there [Afghanistan], but Iraq has deprived them of the support they need — and deserve. … As president, I would deploy at least two additional brigades to Afghanistan to re-enforce our counterterrorism operations and support NATO’s efforts against the Taliban.”

— On July 20, 2008, Obama took a trip to Afghanistan and told Lara Logan of CBS: “For at least a year now, I have called for two additional brigades, perhaps three.” He also told Logan he believed “this has to be our central focus, the central front, on our battle against terrorism.”

That same month, Obama made a speech on foreign policy outside the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C. There, on July 8, he said he thought Afghanistan was more central to the security of the United States than Iraq. “If another attack on our homeland comes, it will likely come from the same region where 9/11 was planned,” said Obama. “And yet today, we have five times more troops in Iraq than Afghanistan.”

He also told the audience that the top-priority mission in Afghanistan was failing because of the troop commitment to Iraq.

“Our troops and our NATO allies are performing heroically in Afghanistan, but I have argued for years that we lack the resources to finish the job because of our commitment to Iraq,” Obama said.

“And that’s why, as president, I will make the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban the top priority that it should be. This is a war that we have to win,” the Democratic nominee said.

He added: “I will send at least two additional combat brigades to Afghanistan, and use this commitment to seek greater contributions – with fewer restrictions – from NATO allies.”

By the first presidential debate, moderated by Jim Lehrer, Obama was suggesting the previous administration had mistakenly de-emphasized Afghanistan. “We took our eye off Afghanistan,” said Obama. “We took our eye off the folks who perpetrated 9/11.”

“[W]e are having enormous problems in Afghanistan because of that decision [to invade Iraq],” he said.

After the election, Obama made the baseball metaphor a refrain.

On the Dec. 8 edition of “NBC Nightly News,” the president-elect again told reporter Jim Miklaszewski: “We took our eye off Afghanistan. We took our eye off the folks who perpetrated 9/11.”

When a candidate has campaigned on doubling down and on counter-insurgency in Afghanistan, asserting that his doubling down and attempting a strategy of counter-insurgency in Afghanistan is due to a lack of courage strains credulity.

It may be due to a lack of wisdom, prudence, or candor. Courage?