Ledger @66,
Interesting that one of the votes Sen Joe Biden cast early in his political Career was the denial of funds to the Republic of Viet Nam. After the Paris Accords determined the timetable for US troop participation and withdraw Congress in 1973 initiated and the Senate concurred in cutting off funds for air operations in Indochina. In 1974 military and economic aid to South Vietnam was drastically sliced. Biden was sworn into the senate in 1973.
If that book they’re passing around the West Wing includes passages about the failure of the Great Society due to competition for funding with the Viet Nam War, there may be the rational used to pull the plug on the Global war on Afghanistan/Pakistan (GWAP). I doubt in the minds of the Democrats and Peace-no-crats, the military and governance COIN knowledge and expertise gained during the past eight plus years in Iraq and Af/pak, or the opportunity which is slowly presenting itself in Pakistan will carry much weight.
The decision will be based on the misapplication of economic principles, leading of course to the correct conclusion that we cannot have European Socialism and fight a war too but with the preference being for the Socialism opposed to the long term safety issues which would arise if we abandon AFPak like we did the Republic of Vietnam.
Convincing the WH that Afghanistan is a worthy fight is not the problem, convincing them that the treasure and blood spent is more worthwhile than continuing on with a socialist experiment already poorly started and certain to impoverish the nation and more of the world. An appeal to president Obama’s vanity by telling him that he has the opportunity to win where no other force in modern or ancient history, save Alexander the Great, has ever been victorious. might work.
Encouraging a review of the statistical array that has led him to utter unsubstantiated conclusions about the effects of TARP or the Stimulus are important, and demonstrating scientifically the fallacy of relying on government spending to lift more than a select few boats is imperitive. For it lays out in black and white the rational for not only the president but the nation, to understand why we think persident Obama has been tricked into lying by his teleprompter.
Meanwhile prepare for the worse should economic failure accelerate in an inverted (upside-down) hockey stick like fashion.
L3, the Chinese have long range planning in place for everything but Whiskey’s dearth of females. How flexible do you think they’re likely to become?
Cannoneer No, 4, I think it will be a matter of timing, that will determine how much conflict will be there on the matter of oaths. That and troop morale.
