OK. However, amid all the “dithering” he could have let himself be persuaded otherwise…but then Sartre said that seeking advice is a cop-out because we tend to find counselors who confirm what we want to do 🙂

I agree with you all. However, let’s be clear, the fault is not with a failure by “Obama’s advisors.” Escalating the war in Afghanistan was a campaign pledge often repeated by then-Senator Obama. President Obama is fulfilling what he said he would do all along.

Recently I discovered the blog of an Australian NGO worker in Afghanistan. He had his whole family there and truly loved the country and its people. However, because even relief workers were being killed, he and his family finally had to go home. If the military were going to be used for anything, it should be to protect relief workers and people like Greg Mortenson, who are building schools.

As for eradicating al Qaeda, where to next? Morocco? Tunisia? Libya?

Seriously, Andrew Bacevich gave a very interesting interview yesterday on the radio show Here and Now, saying basically, that escalating the war in Afghanistan shows a failure of imagination on the part of Obama’s advisers. The US always seems to feel that the way to show that we’re “strong” is by a show of military might. Bacevich pointed out that the real way to eradicate al Qaeda is by careful, coordinated international police work:

http://www.hereandnow.org/2009/12/rundown-122–2/