Ricks Suggests Obama is Stalling on Afghanistan to Help John Corzine
He doesn’t endorse it, per se, but Tom Ricks sort of uncritically passes on the following fairly serious—and seriously weird—accusation against the White House:
Last but most importantly: Nov. 3, gubernatorial elections in both Virginia and New Jersey. The latter of which is my reasoning why the decision was delayed this long. Corzine is in the fight of his life and Obama is going to piss people off either way. Important special elections also in California and New York.
I’m not going to shift into faux-naive mode and pretend it’s outrageous to even insinuate that the administration thinks about politics when it comes to national security. No doubt the president is aware of the general state of public opinion and thinks about how his decisions on Afghanistan will impact his ability to work on other aspects of his agenda. That said, the idea that a decision is being specifically pushed back until after the election because somehow that will help John Corzine is kind of bizarre.
I mean, there’s not even any reason I can think of for believing that delay is helpful to Corzine. This sounds like a person so eager to dream up insidious motives to attribute to the president that he’s come up with one that doesn’t even make minimal sense. Ricks himself has been sharply critical of Obama’s slow decision-making pace. If he wants to endorse the claim, that the “most important” factor in the delay is a cynical effort to intervene in the NJ gubernatorial election he should say so plainly and back the argument up. If not, he should withdraw it. Just passing this on as an “interesting analysis” from “My book researcher, Kyle Flynn, a two-tour vet of Afghanistan (with extra points for duty in Oruzgan, the Pashtun answer to Arkansas) and now a graduate student at Georgetown University,” doesn’t really cut it.
24 Responses to “Ricks Suggests Obama is Stalling on Afghanistan to Help John Corzine”
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October 29th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Well, I don’t know about everybody else, but I’m certainly going to cast my votes for Cambridge School Committee based on the candidates views of troop deployments in Afghanistan.
October 29th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
After performing a blowjob to every sober, serious war-is-hell-but-we-have-to-do-it-forever general he can find, Ricks doesn’t have the time to reflect on what he’s being told before writing his posts.
October 29th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
It is always, alwasys all about projection with these people.
Bush very blatently manipulated the prgress of the war to win domestic elections. What could be more natural than to accuse Obama of doing it?
October 29th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Damn it, Ricks, I gave my nephew a copy of Fiasco when he went off to college to study journalism. Stop being an ass.
October 29th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Absurd, yes. But, unfortunately, no longer without precedent.
October 29th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
Do we really need to think up reasons why Bararck Obama operates in a slow, deliberate, unhurried manner?
October 29th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Obama is voting “present” as long as he can. He’s never held a job that required decisions before; during his relatively short time as an elected official he studiously avoided them. He’s a lot like management in older, mature companies: afraid to make a call either way, and, when finally forced, tries his best to split the difference.
Which is why I predict that he won’t:
– Declare Victory and Leave, going with a more rational bribery based approach
– Give the Generals what they want
Instead, he’ll go the LBJ route: afraid to appear weak, he’ll escalate some, but not enough (although what “enough” would be in a place like Afghanistan is a hard question all by itself).
And thus he’ll vote “present” on this war, ensuring that it will continue to drag on to no obvious conclusion.
October 29th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Corzine the GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY. This post would be much improved by one of Matt’s annotated maps. Fucking Balloon Boy has as much to do with the NJ Gov’s race as Afghanistan.
October 29th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Apropos of James Robertson’s post above but not the topic at hand, do you think the 2012 election will feature a repeat of all the glib criticisms of Obama that even in 2008 required a certain willful ignorance (voting present, palling around with terrorists, only successful because he’s black) but applied to current problems in elaborate, Rube Goldberg-esque ways?
October 29th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
James, you have got to be fucking joking. I’m going to assume your post was a parody of previously discredited Republican talking points.
In the off chance you are serious, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…
Wait, do you remember the guy who invaded Afghanistan and then didn’t bother to finish the job? He was the candidate of the Republican Party. His resume, after eight years of Presidency, is so thin that no rational person would suggest him for any public office. You might remember that he held no jobs that didn’t come from his name and connections (hell, even his “schooling” was nothing more than a walkthrough given to a son of privilege).
The difference between the clowns put forth by the Republican Party (remember their joke candidate Palin? Propping up another candidate of legacy privilege) and Barak Obama is that Obama has actually accomplished something.
So long as you support the assault on the Iraqi people, the Republican Party, and are generally a total fucking moron, you should simply refrain from commenting on any topic requiring an understanding greater than that required to breathe – since reasoning seems far beyond your simple capabilities.
October 29th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
I’m not saying Obama is doing this or even it’s remotely likely but in the book nixonland Nixon specifically delays his big speech on Vietnam until the day before the equivelant elevtions in 1969 and republicans won nearly all contested seats. So it wouldnt be without precedent or political gains, but I seriously doubt this is a big reason for the delay
October 29th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
Seriously, James, “voting present?”
Why don’t you just go whole-hog, and make a tire gauge joke?
October 29th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Aw, come on, the Party of Ideas?
No, I think they’ll run a positive campaign based on their serious, detailed policy proposals.
That, and lots of mailers with Obama wearing African clothes.
October 29th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Okay, I have a problem. I’m crazy, and literally so. I really have been diagnosed as bipolar, and by five separate psychologists. That in itself would be a problem. But the real problem is that the sane people are even crazier than I am. And that makes it really hard to figure out what sanity is. So can I just ask that you sane people actually start behaving in a sane manner? I really need a baseline to work with, and you’re not providing it.
October 29th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
If Obama decides to send 40k troops to Afghanistan, it would likely depress Democratic turn-out. This isn’t a governor’s race or a student council race. The Senate actually does have a lot to do with foreign affairs. But disregard that, is anyone here stupid enough to think that humans behave in a rational or logical manner? Humans are emotional and instinctual beings. Humans behavior is based on a set of emotional pay-outs and avoidance. Don’t expect to work through it like it’s a math problem.
J.W., that comparison would make since if the Cambridge School Committee votes on war funding the way, you know, the Senate does.
October 29th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Lots of lunatic stuff on this thread.
Obama is a lot more interested in the Afghan election than the New Jersey one. He’s waiting to see whether Karzai starts playing ball before he signs up. It’s the main lever Obama has over him.
October 29th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
James Robertson, it’s not just the fact that a Bush voter is pontificating on the character shortcomings of Obama that is hilarious. It’s that such “sober observations” just happen to line up precisely with the ravings of those who propagate right-wing talking points that make them impossible to take seriously.
October 29th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
soullite — Actually, the Corzine-Christie-Daggett race is for governor, not senator.
October 29th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
“Lots of lunatic stuff on this thread.”
Hey, don’t blame me, I’m just crazy. I’m not one of the sane people who obviously have no connection to reality.
October 29th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Why don’t you just go whole-hog, and make a tire gauge joke?
Hah! That is some funny stuff now. Especially after McCain lost Indiana, Virginia, North Carolina, and Virginia. More prop comedy in 2012 please GOP!
October 29th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
McCain didn’t lose Virginia twice. I regret the error.
October 30th, 2009 at 12:06 am
Well Obama is in a tough spot. I am sure he would like to leave but then he would lose the next election because Americans will not tolerate loss. Sure they want out too but they will have to blame somebody for losing. Then too there is a list as long as your arm of people who want us to say. Osama does. Probably half the warlords fighting us want us to stay. It’s job security. The Russians, Chinese, and Iranians do too. Just for the sheer fun of watching us flounder and spend 10 billion a month or whatever it is. The Saudis want us there just because they love our military anywhere close. The Iranians are probably the only ones who want us out, which is another plus.
To all the soldiers who get blown up driving around or falling out of the sky in their helicopters……. well, what can one say.
October 30th, 2009 at 4:40 am
This is just an accusation that can be made on the cheap, because it can’t be proved one way or the other. Nothing more, nothing less.
October 30th, 2009 at 8:28 am
Re James Robertson
Relative to President Osamas’ apparent hesitation about what to do in Afghanistan, attached is a link to a comment by George Will, not noted as an Osama admirer.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/25/george-will-to-cheney-you_n_333036.html
“A bit of dithering might have been in order before we went into Iraq in pursuit of non-existent weapons of mass destruction,” Will said on ABC’s “This Week. “For a representative of the Bush administration to accuse someone of taking too much time is missing the point. We have much more to fear in this town from hasty than from slow government action.”