1. Yesterday, during the Omnipresence of Obama, the president was asked on all 4 English-speaking channels about Afghanistan.
2. On all 4, as is the story of the day, he answered identically, using the exact same phraseology, even.
3. He said, when asked about sending more troops, he was waiting to conduct his "top to bottom review" (except on CNN he called it a "soup to nuts reevalution"), he didn't want to put his cart before his horse, he was committed to putting off "the resource question until after the strategy question" has been resolved.
4. On CBS, Schieffer asked him straight up---"will you send a larger force to Afghanistan?"
5. The Chin in Chief replied---"no, I haven't yet received that request."
6. The DATE on General McChrystal's leaked assessment above is August 30, more than THREE WEEKS AGO.
7. Therefore, the president yesterday LIED.
8. Schieffer also foresaw today's revelation, apparently, asking---if the general asks for more troops, "won't it be hard to say no?"
9. The assessment leaked to The Post today blatantly contradicts the Chin's position stated 4 times yesterday.
10. The only reason Obama has any interest in the region in the first place is because he made it such a high priority during his campaign, so eager to prove to the people that he was not your traditional anti-military, blame-America-first democrat.
11. He opposed W's War in Iraq, he said, because it was the "wrong war."
12. The mountains on the moon in Afghanistan, in contrast, were the appropriate purlieu for this final showdown with international terror.
13. Now, he's stuck with it.
14. John King on CNN asked, when will Afghanistan become "Obama's War?"
15. We're clearly past that point.
16. King asked---during the campaign you promised to "crush Al Qaeda and kill Osama Bin Laden," is it harder than you thought it would be?
17. The Chin chimed in---oh, I think I knew during the campaign it was going to be hard.
18. Everything is so "hard," from health care to setting the tone of civility to changing "this town" to determining the "appropriate role of government."
19. Going on Letterman aint easy either, presumably.
20. On CNN, Senate Republican Leader McConnell pledged support for the president should he decide (once he receives that assessment he's been sitting on for THREE WEEKS) to commit to victory in Afghanistan.
21. Obama can't blame this one on Fox.
22. The United States, however, has ZERO chance of success in Moon Mountains.
23. The USSR's Gorby put 200,000 troops there for ten years and discovered only defeat.
24. The USSR also fought with a WILL to win alien to this administration.
25. Indeed, Gorby's loss in Afghanistan was one of the principle reasons Stalin's evil empire ultimately collapsed.
26. Obama wants OUT.
27. His party too is almost universally committed to retreating from the forlorn region.
28. Obama will eventually DROP Afghanistan just like his public option, just like cap and trade, just like his prosecution of the CIA.
29. It's only a matter of time.
30. When he does, it will be a strategic and military defeat of planetary scope for America.
31. And an equally soaring setback for this president politically.
32. McChrystal warns "defeat is likely."
33. The stability of the Karzai regime is as problematic as the insurgency itself, says Obama's hand-picked general.
34. Obama yesterday, pressed by CNN's King ("didn't Karzai steal the election?") would not comment on the legitimacy of the recent plebiscite there.
35. But McChrystal, in the leaked assessment, sure did---"the result is a crisis of confidence amongst Afghans."
36. "Further, a perception that our resolve is uncertain makes Afghans reluctant to align with us against insurgents."
37. Other problems, according to the president's man: our strategy needs to be more concerned with protecting Afghans from terrorists and less focused on killing the enemy.
38. We do not sufficiently understand Afghanistan's "social, political, economic and cultural affairs," as well, says the top US and NATO commander.
39. The prisons are full of radical Islamists who make their plans freely behind barbed wire and recruit converts to their cause from the petty trespassers comprising the prison population.
40. McChrystal continues to teach lessons on which the president, according to Obama, awaits elucidation---we are facing in the land that grounded Gorbachev a "three headed insurgency."
41. The most dangerous element to our interests, according to McChrystal, is the Taliban, led by Mullah Omar, and headquartered in Pakistan.
42. Shadow Taliban governments control spacious provincial precincts, establish Sharia courts in their strongholds, impose taxes and conscript soldiers.
43. The second-in-size security peril posed to our soldiers is the Haqqani Network located in the southeast, with ties to Al Qaeda in next-door Pakistan.
44. And the third threat to US interests comes from the Hezb-e Islamic Gulbuddin, which operates from 3 regional bases and is led by former Mujahadeen commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
45. Toward the end of his report, McChrystal revisits his central theme: "Failure to provide adequate resources also risks a longer conflict, greater casualties, higher overall costs, and ultimately, a critical loss of political support. Any of these risks, in turn, are likely to result in mission failure."
46. Problems, problems everywhere, when will this poor president produce a positive piece of press?
McChrystal: More Forces or 'Mission Failure'
