THE REALLY AMAZING THING...:

Afghanistan: The Missing Strategy (Ahmed Rashid, 12/02/09, NYRB Blog)

Many in the region will ignore Obama’s promise of a long-term commitment to Pakistan and Afghanistan beyond 2011—after all the Americans have made similar commitments to both countries in the past and not kept them. Even for some liberal Pakistanis and Afghans, Obama’s speech seemed to be a declaration of “cut and run,” although that is probably grossly unfair. Cynics are already saying that Obama wants most US troops out before he stands for reelection in 2012.

More troubling, however, was the lack of detail in Obama’s speech. He did not explain what strategy the additional US troops will be carrying out. There was no mention of the regional approach he had outlined in his March 2009 speech on Afghanistan and Pakistan that would bring together Afghanistan’s neighbors into a compact to help stabilize the country. Nor did he say how the “civilian surge” he mentioned would work. There was nothing in his speech about reforming the US aid and development process itself, which is rife with waste, corruption, and mismanagement, and which the Obama team promised to clean up last spring.

...is that it took this president, who is smarter than a thousand Einsten's, 11 months to come up with "ditto."

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 2, 2009 7:09 PM