Republicans Impose Their “Decider” Approach re Afghanistan Strategy

Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 08:39 pm

Republicans are insinuating that Obama’s “delay”, aka, seeking input from naysayers and congress before making a decision regarding strategy in Afghanistan, is indicative of weakness on Obama’s part. Apparently, Republicans have been suppressing Congressional War Powers and the Constitution for so long now that they just assume it’s a given that everyone does so, and failure to do so is smugly re-branded as “delay”.

They’ve also apparently forgotten the election; where preemptive wars and expanded powers of the executive office were roundly denounced; They still expect us to do it their way, because it seems that for Republicans, there’s always a rush when lives are on the line.

“President Obama is seeking a wide array of views on Afghanistan, his aides say, and he should be getting them at today’s meeting with 31 members of Congress.

The guest list ranges from war skeptics like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to Republicans such as Sen. John McCain who have urged the president to send more troops to Afghanistan.

“The president has and wants to hear from all of those that are involved in decisions about protecting our homeland, keeping our country safe, as well as the deployment of our men and women in uniform,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.”

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2009/10/68500460/1

See, according to Republicans like McCain, “delay” (aka, gathering ideas and facts from many before charging ahead, McCain/Palin style “We’re all Georgians now”) signals weakness. “”We need to act with deliberate haste,” said McCain”.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/06/us.afghanistan

Deliberate haste, eh? It seems to escape Republicans that their very lack of delay is why they were voted out of power by a landslide. It was when the “decider” went around congress to illegally start a preemptive war, thereby expanding the powers of the executive office way beyond those granted via the constitution and in fact, violating the intention of checks and balances and congressional war powers, that Americans began to seriously question the Gutster, his party, and their myth of themselves as decisive, strong cowboys protecting the country via their alpha male decisions.

But leave it to our smart, calm president to refuse to take the bait: “During the meeting, the president dismissed efforts to define the debate as a choice between “doubling down or leaving Afghanistan” as a “straw man,” according to an Obama administration official.”

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/06/us.afghanistan

McCain (aka, “crash”, Mr. Reckless and Volatile) further insisted, in a conversation with John Kerry (Democratic chairmen of Senate Foreign Relations Committee and war hero who was maligned as a coward by the Republicans when he ran against W the draft-dodger) that the heat for the Afghanistan troop deployment decision rested entirely on the President, subtly reminding Americans that only Republicans can be trusted to be strong and decisive enough to run our military as CIC.

And by “strong enough”, Republicans mean willing to overlook the constitution. Because only a real man can violate the very tenets of the document (in the name of freedom) he has sworn to uphold. And certainly only a real man would use terrorism to accomplish expanding the powers of the executive office, by reminding Americans that every delay could mean their lives. Terror Alert Level Red! Give me all your congressional power now! Oh, I kid. I kid…

But, seriously, Eric Cantor is worried that Obama is taking time to think about this, “”Obviously, there are many of us who feel that delay does signal uncertainty to the region.”

Never mind that for 7 years, Bush ignored this region in favor of his war; the War on Gog…because fighting a Holy War to destroy Gog is so…constitutional. Oh, but why look back when we can blame Obama for everything right now!! Come on!

“Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged Monday that Taliban fighters “have the momentum right now,” blaming a shortage of U.S. and allied troops over the past seven years for the development.”

So much for being the Decider and not taking time to think things through, eh?

“White House spokesman Robert Gibbs has said Obama would consult with Congress on his eventual decision.

“The president has [heard] and wants to hear from all of those that are involved in decisions about protecting our homeland, keeping our country safe, as well as the deployment of our men and women in uniform,” Gibbs said. “Obviously, Congress plays an important and significant role in that, and this is part of talking to them about this process.””

Watch out, Mr. President: abiding by the constitution and referencing Constitutional congressional war powers (vests in the Congress the exclusive power to declare war—oopsie for W) will only earn you derisive scorn and lack of support from the Republicans, whose policy of act now and think later got us into this horrific mess in the first place.

Is this a good time for an Irony Alert? As you know, Republicans, teabaggers, and Sarah Palin cultistas are the only true patriots of this country, and lately, they’ve rediscovered their love and sole proprietorship of our founding fathers. So, it is with great dismay that I present the following:

“As to the Philadelphia Convention and the intent of the American founders, there was only one delegate who suggested giving the Executive the power to take offensive military action: Pierce Butler of South Carolina. He suggested the president should be able to, but in practice would have the character not to do so without mass support. Elbridge Gerry, a delegate from Massachusetts, summed up the majority viewpoint saying he “never expected to hear in a republic a motion to empower the Executive alone to declare war.” George Mason, Thomas Jefferson, and others voiced similar sentiments.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Powers_Clause

Those darn South Carolinians again….violating the intention of a republic. Hmmm….Some things never change.

And Sarah Palin, our great American Quitter, is warning Obama from her Facebook page, “don’t get second thoughts!” regarding sending more troops to Afghanistan. Because, you know, she didn’t blink when asked to be McCain’s V.P. Although it’s only fair to mention that she did have second thoughts about that whole governor thing. Yeah, that didn’t work out so well, so Mrs. Palin is off to progress her state by making a lot of money for herself by writing a book. Sigh. Only in Palin’s America (Politicians as Reality Show/Beauty Pageant contestants) can quitting your job in the middle of a recession be so lucrative!

Many of us Americans (the majority, aka, not “pro-Americans”) voted for Obama because he seemed like the kind of guy who would have his second and third thoughts BEFORE he acted, not after. After all, it seems like a good idea to have second thoughts. And third thoughts. And maybe even fourth thoughts before making monumental, global decisions. So, what some call “delay”, others call reasonable and necessary debate. If we had “delayed” before allowing Bush to declare a pre-emtive war based on alleged (and not proven) Weapons of Mass Destruction — indeed, if the intentions of our founding fathers had been followed in the first place, we might not be in the position of sending Americans into battle in Afghanistan today.

And that’s worth a blink.