The Speech & Hollow Victory...

Wednesday, December 2, 2009 4:04 AM

In this era of instant analysis and endless explanations of what is going to be said before anything is said, I'm sure we are all already tired of hearing more about President Barack's performance and speech yesterday at West Point. So I will spare you my own take on what happened and what it means.


All that needs to be said about Obama and Washington on this subject was said precisely a month ago by Professor John Mearsheimer in his article "Hollow Victory" posted on the Foreign Policy website. It is refreshingly honest, albeit sad and a little scary.


A sample: "The real tragedy of Vietnam is not that the United States lost, but that it became involved in the first place."  And: "In Afghanistan, as in Vietnam, it simply does not matter whether the United States wins or loses. It makes no sense for the Obama administration to expend more blood and treasure to vanquish the Taliban. The United States should accept defeat and immediately begin to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan.... As was the case in Vietnam, more American soldiers and many more civilians are going to die in Afghanistan. And for no good reason."


To some this may smack of "defeatism", but it is only calling a spade a spade. Something no politician in Washington can do, at least not in public.