Quote of the Week & Commentary

"War: an act of violence whose object is to constrain the enemy, to accomplish our will."

My Fellow Americans,

The quote above is attributed to the Commander of the Continental Army and our first President -- none other than George Washington.  For more on George, read his Wikipedia page here.

With Obama's speech on Dec. 1 regarding the surge of troops in Afghanistan, I felt a quote about war was appropriate.  More importantly, a quote about going to war to win would work the best.

As we discussed this week, Obama is not in this war to win it.  If he wanted to win, he would have given our troops in Afghanistan an additional 50,000 to 60,000 troops instead of the 30,000 he announced he would send over the next year and a half.

The object of war, as Washington noted, is to "constrain the enemy" and "accomplish our will."  I don't see Obama's plan doing either of these.

What Obama will do is allow our enemy, the Taliban, to wait us out until after July 2011 (the month he announced the U.S. would start pulling troops from Afghanistan).  Furthermore, his inability to send the reinforcements needed will ensure that the U.S. fails in the Middle East.

Can we come to any other conclusion?  Do I want our fellow Americans to fail over there?  No way.  But, do I think they are being provided the best opportunity for success?  Not in the least.

We can only hope the Obama administration comes to its senses as the plan to send only 30,000 troops unfolds.  If they don't, our men and women overseas are being placed in a greater danger than is necessary.

(Picture Source: Google Images)