People keep asking me whether I agree with the president's troop surge in Afghanistan. I am a lawyer. I know what to do with a hard question: Answer another one that is so similar that even the person asking may not notice you've changed it. So I answer that I absolutely support the president on this one, that I absolutely approve of the process and the decision and the way he's handling his responsibility as commander in chief.
That's what I say to conservatives, and they say how smart I am, which is always nice to hear, even if not always earned. On this subject, I am only smart enough to know what I don't know.
To liberals who ask whether I agree with the president, I look at them as if they are absolutely out of their minds and tell them the whole unvarnished truthful answer to the question they actually asked: I haven't got a clue.
Oh, maybe a clue, but not much more. Hardly enough to agree, much less disagree, which is what my liberal friends are doing a lot of on this one, and what they are about to do with me until they confront my absolutely genuine inability to answer their actual question.
Don't know. Really. If I did, God knows, I would've called him and spared him the agony.
Barack Obama did not spend many meetings and many weeks making a decision because a long process was going to win him political points. Actually, it cost him points on all sides. It didn't take him so long to decide because he's slow to understand easy stuff, but because this is a miserably difficult situation with no good answers.
What a smart person — and Obama is certainly a very smart person — does when confronted with the hardest problem in the world is take time to meet with the people who know the most.
Push and listen and ask questions and review options until you are sure you know and understand all of the terrible choices you have. And then make the decision.
Obama has done this. I haven't. He's been briefed by military and intelligence officials. He's read all the classified stuff, which, according to anyone who has read any of it, is so terrifying that you don't want to know. I certainly don't.
I've actually done a lot of reading about Afghanistan and Pakistan. I've done legal work related to that area. There are no easy answers here; nothing people would want to hear in a 30-second bite. This one is really hard. Heads you lose; tails you lose more. I'm not sure which is heads or tails. This is not one I can second-guess from the grandstands based on a cruise of the morning blogs. Why are we listening to people who are doing no more than that? It's not even the right question.
This is why we elect presidents. I don't need to agree. I do approve.
I believe in the intelligence and integrity of the man who made this decision. I believe he made it based on his best judgment as to what is best for the country. I believe he made it knowing it would cost the lives of soldiers, young men and women whose lives he values greatly, and that he would be blamed for that, and would always shoulder that responsibility. I believe he made it knowing it is far from certain that we will meet any of the withdrawal deadlines, and that he is exposing himself to a much longer and more expensive commitment. I believe he made it because he believes it is the right decision to protect our country and our children. That is enough for me.
To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS.COM
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If this was a Republican president you would have been all over him. Why do not not mentiion why we are fighting this war? Yes, I agree we must fight it for our safety at home. Do you remember the difference between Vietnam and this war? Vietnam we went in to defend democracy and Iraq and Afghanistan we went in to defend our country because we were attacked. BIG DIFFERENCE!!! My son just signed up for the national guard to defend our country and our freedom. My neighbor just returned from Iraq and my coworkers husband is getting ready for Afghanistan in January. He already did two tours in Iraq. They all are honored to serve our country but feel our President is weak in defense and fear for their well being. I just hope and pray that President Obama continues to support these brave men and women and that he does not bow down to the pressures of the far left. I pray every night for him that he makes the right decision for the people not the unions, socialist (Ayers, Wright etc), Pelosi and Reid. Oh this with Bill Ayers being upset with him is a joke. Bill Ayers should be in jail with his wife Beverly Dohrn for murder. Why does he have so much to say about what is happening???? Please write an article to explain his power over Obama and why no one listened to Sean Hannity when he tried to tell the country about this???? Oh Susan when are you and our fearless leader (fearful to me) going to do what is right for us and not their own agenda.
Comment: #1
Posted by: kathaleen
Sat Dec 5, 2009 6:27 AM
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And yet, for all the deliberation, secrecy, and nuance, Obama has made the only decision that he could have made. Please see my earlier comment... http://www.creators.com/comments/opinion/do-you-recognize-your-president.html. Maybe things aren't so complicated after all?
Comment: #2
Posted by: scott365
Sat Dec 5, 2009 6:52 AM
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Susan;
I'm a Conservative, but I enjoy your columns. Regarding the penultimate paragraph of your current column, I could have written the same words about George W. and Iraq. Isn't that interesting??
Comment: #3
Posted by: art kambury
Sat Dec 5, 2009 5:32 PM
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Susan, I must say that I agree with Mr. Kambury in Comment #1. The last seven paragraphs of your piece,
containing the meat of your commentary, could just as easily have been applied to President Bush and his
decisions to invade both Iraq and Afghanistan. The Left continues to point to the fact that no nuclear
weapons were found to be in Saddam's possession, but this argument is both specious and beside the point.
It would have been only a question of time before Iraq acquired nuclear bombs, since oil monies were
pouring in due to the porous embargo (in part because of the corruption of United Nations bureaucrats),
the nuclear technology was available from Pakistan, the missile delivery systems would, in time, have
been acquired from North Korea and Saddam not only wanted such a nuclear capacity, but would have not
hesitated to use it if he thought it necessary. I hardly need to remind you both of the slaughter of the Kurds
with poisonous chemicals and the deadly missile attack on the United States warship in the Persian Gulf.
Lastly, the Israelis clearly saw the potential nuclear threat posed by Saddam,as they took out the Iraqi
nuclear facility at Osiris. Please, Ms. Estrich, use the brains God gave you instead of parrotting the old
and tired leftist political propaganda. It seems that Obama "the Smart" is doing pretty much the same
thing as George Bush. Does this make Bush smart too? All the attempts by you and the Democrat Party
to distinguish the two cases are ludicrous and painfully transparent, distinctions without a difference.
The American electorate deserves much more than this subterfuge and mendacity.
Comment: #4
Posted by: Julian Baker
Sat Dec 5, 2009 8:27 PM
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I just had a thought. As Obama makes his speech about Afghanistan on Tuesday his possey is secretly meeting to get his health care bill past. So on a Saturday as the attention is diverted from the Health care reform bill due to the war, he is doing his mob style threatening of the senators that are not with him and the unions. This occurred as we took a minute off the subject of health care. I am glad I am 55 years old and have lived most of my life but I feel sorry for my children and my future grandchildren for the America they will have to live in will not be what I will have experienced . Don't you worry about yours?????
Comment: #5
Posted by: Kathaleen
Sun Dec 6, 2009 3:25 PM
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Susan: "What I Don't Know..." -- absolutely the best column you or anyone else has written in as long as I can remember. We have simply got to give the president credit for intelligence and, just as important, a dispassionate, i.e., open, mind. He has done precisely what we need most at the head of our government and the decision is made. The best thing any of us can do now is stand back and support it, agree or not. Thanks
Comment: #6
Posted by: Richard Stephenson
Sun Dec 6, 2009 5:25 PM
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The President really had a choice of two decisions:
1. Pull out now and don't risk lives of our soldiers and put them to risk later under a future president after the next 9/11 or
2. Win the War agianst Extreme Islam and realize it's a LONG war that may not limit us to Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.
The President made a politicall decision that's neither of the above!
Comment: #7
Posted by: Early
Mon Dec 7, 2009 7:49 AM
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Obama made no big decision.......certainly not one that deserved the amount of time he took in getting there. In a speech set before West Point as a photo-op he did not use the word victory once. Not once. What he did was set a time line for departure. His actions will cost lives. He has shown incredible weakness in the face of a blood thirsty enemy and that is always bad. One of two things will happen now: 1) those forces against us fad into the mountains only to give token fights to let us know they are there....we accept this as things getting better, pull out and then Afghanistan falls to a very rebuilt and fresh Taliban and AQ force or 2) they step up the attack in number and size hoping to drive our casualty numbers sky high in an effort to get Obama to give up even earlier. Obama made a political decision not a military one. He was acting as head of his party and not CIC.
Comment: #8
Posted by: Adam
Mon Dec 7, 2009 11:49 AM
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Susan,
You may approve the intelligence and integrity (of a careful word calibrator from campaign to office) and judgment. However, with zero experience and lacking an option to vote present, POTUS does not know what he is doing and I am terrified.
His party bumbled us into all major wars last century and he is doing the same here. His belief that his decision is the right thing carries no credibility - arrogance notwithstanding. Pray for our country.
This is not enough for me.
Comment: #9
Posted by: Cliff Farris
Mon Dec 7, 2009 8:45 PM
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On matters of national security, yes, presidents have more information than citizens. But we must still make judgements about the wisdom of a president's decisions. I, too, prefer that a president take his time and get all the information and on-the-ground insight he can before commiting lives and resources to war. While I am disappointed that President Obama chose to escalate, what choice did he really have? Americans would have rioted in the streets if he had "thrown in the towel" or "admitted defeat" and anything short of this escalation would have been interpreted as such. Americans like war and equate it with strength and patriotism. Soldiers are trained to fight and that's what they want to do. Besides, there aren't enough jobs them in the civilian economy. So, yes, support the President's decision. What choice do WE have?
Comment: #10
Posted by: Laurie Craw
Mon Dec 7, 2009 10:43 PM
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You have an interesting censorship of your comments. Mine is not included.
Comment: #11
Posted by: Cliff Farris
Tue Dec 8, 2009 7:26 AM
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usan,
You may approve the intelligence and integrity (of a careful word calibrator from campaign to office) and judgment. However, with zero experience and lacking an option to vote present, POTUS does not know what he is doing and I am terrified.
His party bumbled us into all major wars last century and he is doing the same here. His belief that his decision is the right thing carries no credibility - arrogance notwithstanding. Pray for our country.
This is not enough for me.
Comment: #12
Posted by: Cliff Farris
Wed Dec 9, 2009 8:19 AM
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