Afghan Mythologies, Code Pink and President Obama

The often-dramatic anti-war group Code Pink has modified their position on pulling troops out of Afghanistan after visiting with women and with officials in Afghanistan. Members of the group were reportedly disappointed that people in Afghanistan had a somewhat different view of the American Imperialists than they did:

. . . . We have been feeling a sense of fear of the people of the return of the Taliban. So many people are saying that, ‘If the US troops left, the country would collapse. We’d go into civil war.’ A palpable sense of fear that is making us start to reconsider that.”

A bit of snark:

If the rumors are true about Biden spearheading a movement inside the administration to scale back in Afghanistan, then we’ve actually reached the point where Code Pink is more hawkish than the Vice President of the United States. . . .

These are the same people who had to be dragged out of Petraeus’ hearing before Congress in 2006 for screaming about the “lies” he was telling about counterinsurgency. . . .

Not to suggest that Code Pink is consistent in their current message of caution concerning withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Victor Davis Hanson brings some perspective to the over-hyped myths concerning the difficulty of waging war in Afghanistan. Even in light of these myths, Obama faces little domestic opposition to taking necessary actions in Afghanistan to defeat the Taliban.

What, then, prevents President Obama from sending more troops to secure the country?

Mostly problems of presidential indecision and confusion. Candidate Obama ran on the theme of Afghanistan as the necessary war, Iraq the optional one. But he assumed the then-quiet front in Afghanistan would stay that way, while Americans would withdraw from what he deemed a hopeless effort in Iraq.

Just the opposite ensued. The surge worked. But Afghanistan heated up. So now the president finds himself increasingly trapped by his campaign rhetoric. He is on record as committed to defeating the Taliban and winning the "necessary" war. But the president is now also a Noble Peace Laureate who apparently does not want what has become a messy conflict with Islamists on his watch.

We have experienced soldiers and military leadership, a just cause and Western unity. In other words, we have everything we need to defeat the Taliban — except a commander-in-chief as confident about fighting and winning as he once was as a candidate.