War happens, and has always happened, throughout history. The only thing that’s changed is that it’s either on an immense scale with lots of damage, or a tiny scale with lots of damage. The immense scale gives us someone to fight and a clear goal; the tiny scale, involving terrorism, gives us no clearly defined enemy and a whole lot of cleanup. That cleanup is in personnel, politics, finances, and morale. At least in large-scale war there is potential for heroes. The position that our presidents have been put in is a loathe one, and being privy to the limited information that the average American has access to concerning the real activities of our foreign enemies I shudder to think what the President sees when they break in his cherry in the secretive intel chambers of Washington the day after inauguration.

Fortunately for me and everyone on my campus (and all of our families) at bedtime, we have some people in this country with the peaches to stand up and fight for us to be safe lest we rest in a pool of Pakistani’s stollen radio active particles.

Then again, in the interest of avoiding another Vietnam as some people are so afraid of, we could always wait for war until the threat is so blatant to us that it’s too late….not happened before? Hitler, WWII, had conquered Poland long before anyone thought to escalate the world to war and it was done against the sanctions of the time’s version of the UN. If this war is right, then all you naysayers will keep breathing to naysay another day….If this war is not right, then all you naysayers will keep breathing to naysay another day. If this war is right and we do not participate …. if you’re not intelligent enough to guess what happens then, you ought to be stripped of your right to vote.

Any of the Bush Haters notice that while American Leaders change, American interests (in this case self preservation) don’t?

Think you could grow up a little now?

@Dkelsmith – good luck if you’re going downrange. Best of luck to all that are.

I know he campaigned on the “good war”; but if we can not even muster the strength to raise taxes to pay for it – what the hell are we doing there?

I feel cheated.

Yes. This. The idea that we can beat them into some kind of submission and simultaneously build a viable, stable democracy is a recipe for disaster.

The Right wing analysis has already begun; the speech was a gift to the terrorists; Obama is signaling a date for withdrawal that plays into the hands of the Taliban; 30,000 is less than McChrystal wanted, therefore the plan undercuts the military strategy, and on and on.

It’s simply amazing that after allowing Bush to ignore this conflict and manufacture the nightmare of Iraq for 8 years, that so much scrutiny is suddenly on Obama to ‘get it right.’

Afghanistan is an incredibly poor, mostly illiterate nation that has been held hostage by Western military forces at the behest of petroleum conglomerates seeking a pipeline conduit through the country for the enormous Central Asian oil and natural gas deposits for decades.

The very presence of these armies has fuelled the rise of resistance driven by Islamic extremism. The addition of more foreign troops is not going to solve this problem, but only exacerbate it.

Local Afghan tribal leaders are the key to securing the country’s future, and have been utterly neglected up until now. More emphasis has to be given to their influence and to dealing with moderate Taliban sympathizers who will quickly switch their allegiance to whomever can provide them with a more prosperous subsistence, none of which will be either easy or expedient to accomplish.

The future of America’s involvement in Afghanistan looks very bleak indeed.

Funny there was no mention about how Congress has yet to actually declare war, and that the entire last 8 years has been illegal, as per the United States Constitution…

But, I think he is right when he says that the cause is just. We’ve been in this war for eight years. It is high time that we do what we must to try to succeed.