What Obama Won't Say ... America Will Cut and Run From Afghanistan

From Andrew Malcolm, "What Obama Won't Way About the Afghan War Today, at Least Publicly":

Tomorrow night the president will fly off to Copenhagen in his 747 with the one-man shower, the double-bed and the motorized window blinds to help the Chicago Chamber of Commerce stave off the Rio de Janeiro challenge and sell the International Olympic Committee on the Windy (Humid) City for the 2016 summer games. Having First Lady Michelle Obama head the U.S. delegation wasn't good enough for Mayor Richard M. Daley, to whom all municipal Democrats owe obeisance out there.

But today out of the public eye in a very secure White House room the president will meet with top advisers to debate what to do about the good war, the one that Obama spent the last two-plus years arguing was the real one against terrorism, not the concocted conflict in Iraq.

Obama calls the Afghan conflict "a war of necessity" and has already approved one troop surge there. Now the new allied commander appointed by the Obama administration says he needs more boots on the ground or failure is virtually certain.

As more U.S. troops undertook more aggressive action this summer, August turned into the worst month for American casualties in the eight-year war, with one American dying every 14 hours. That's likely to worsen.

Obama spent the entire summer almost exclusively selling healthcare reform. And as memories of 9/11 and the attackers' training sites in Taliban Afghanistan fade, polls show American support for the war there melting, especially within Obama's own party.

Only about a quarter support sending more troops -- and many of that party of Yes are Republicans. They agree with Obama that it's esssential to deny Afghanistan to terrorists and keep Pakistan's nukes out of their hands.

So what's to do?

White House officials say privately no final decisions will be made today. But the thinking will be greatly shaped and the stakes are huge, making healthcare look like a sideshow.

Signs are growing that Obama will seek to change the war goals, to redefine what is success and divert the discussion away from the more-troops measure. It's not defeat in Afghanistan; it's victory of a different kind. The president used a similar strategic argument recently when abandoning the Bush administration's missile defense shield in Europe: it's not less defense, it's defense done smarter and cheaper.

Read the whole thing (via Memeorandum). This is why I can't stand the Democrats. Both Joseph Biden and John Kerry, cited at the essay (with a link to Kerry's WSJ op-ed this week), are Obama's varsity cheerleaders for an American cut-and-run from Afghanistan. As Malcolm notes, with regards to the president's meeting with NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen":

But notice anything missing here? No more mention of the original 9/11 bad guys, the Taliban. No mention either of defeating them. And no more mention of making it safe for democracy to flourish in Afghanistan.

Through such overlooked omissions are the political goals and measures of American victory in Afghanistan being subtly shifted without any notice or announcement by the Obama administration.

And remember, this is the administration that's redefining September 11 into a national day of community organizing. See, "A ‘National Day of Service’? Or a Political Hijacking of 9/11?"

Plus, "Are We Complacent About Terrorism?"