In yesterday's front page diary, there were a number of comments like this:
I'm going to at least wait until he gives the address on this week. It's such a mess, I'm not sure what the best solution is to be honest.
And that comment got 4 recommendations - so it's clearly a sentiment with some support.
To those people supporting it, I say: What could the speech possibly contain that would make the slightest bit of difference to you?
Do you imagine that - all reports to the contrary - that he's not going to escalate?
Hate to break this to you... but he already has.
Do you think he'll provide you with a persuasive argument that escalating is just a continuance of his previously stated goal to "disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda"? [And isn't alliteration better suited to commercial jingles than the horror of war?]
Too bad for this excuse that his own National Security Advisor says there are less than 100 of them in Afghanistan.
Do you think that he'll convince you of the need to keep Afghanistan out of the clutches of the Taliban?
Too bad for this excuse that we're funding the Taliban.
So let me ruin the suspense for you. Obama will have nothing new to say next Tuesday. [Or next month. Or whenever Rahm Emanuel decides that it can't be put off any longer.]
I'm sure he'll use all of his much-praised rhetorical skills to drape the American flag around the gore-drenched but oh-so-profitable war machine whose gears he's upshifting. And the die-hards here will wipe the tears from their cheeks as they discover a new sympathy for the complexities of the situation - unshakeable in their conviction that Obama, if nothing else, is trying as best he can to do the right thing.
And the suffering and death of Obama's War will go on.
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"I will be making an announcement to the American people about how we intend to move forward [in Afghanistan]...it is my intention to finish the job." - Barack Obama, November 24, 2009
"We're moving forward [in Iraq]...When America says we'll do something, we are going to do it and finish the job." - George W. Bush, June 18, 2005