After President Obama’s speech at West Point, it seemed certain that most of the pundits would find some parts to applaud and even more to criticize. And no one, absolutely no one was completely happy with the entirety of his proposal. That may be exactly where we need to be to move forward with this complex problem.
Are we so polarized in this nation that everything must be black or white to be acceptable to us? Can’t we just acknowledge that this man has an enormous challenge before him? Maybe he has it wrong, maybe he has it right. One thing is certain: we can be sure he has given it more thought than nearly anyone on the planet. And with his considerable intellect, I choose to give him the benefit of the doubt. That is one very heavy weight he carries around all day.
Not long ago, I listened to Bill Moyers on PBS as he played the tapes of telephone conversations between LBJ and his friends, allies in Congress, and officials within his own administration. You could hear the angst in his voice over and over again as he tried to divine the answer to the thickest thicket he had ever been in. It is clear President Obama is not going to let Afghanistan do to America what Vietnam did. We will do the job he outlined last night and we will come home.
This is not 1945 so there will be no peace treaty signed on the deck of some battleship. But, mind you, coming home in 2011 does not mean we will cease to participate in the strategic security of that entire region. The rest of the free world looks to us to make sure we keep an eye on every untoward movement there.
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