Obama's Afghan Surge and Our Republican Losers

Obama's recent decision to commit an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan, mirroring Bush's 2007 Iraq troop surge, was applauded by some Republican pundits and politicians Thursday, including former Congressman Newt Gingrich. On the other hand, Obama faced criticism from within his own party by liberals including Russ Feingold, who argued that the war had lost its direction.

What does this news item say? It sums up, more clearly than anything yet, that the Republican party, nay, the conservative movement in America, has lost its way. Once upon a time the Republican Party was the party of restraint. They were labeled "isolationists", and it was the Democrats who were the "warmongers".

Democrats led America into two inconclusive large-scale conflicts in east Asia where a total of nearly 100,000 American troops were killed, with hundreds of thousands more permanently maimed. Republicans, going back to the beginning of the 20th Century, were always cautious about committing troops to combat. They were CONSERVATIVE about war, not just about spending and taxation. Not that they were doves, but they carefully weighed the circumstances to see if war was a CRITICAL NECESSITY for ensuring American freedom and welfare because nothing else justifies risking the lives of soldiers, not to mention the tremendous financial burden of modern war.

So what does it tell us when Newt Gingrich, the architect of the stunning 1994 midterm Republican takeover of Congress, gives B.O. a big pat on the back? What does it tell us when the Republican leaderships, including John McCain, criticize the deployment plan not for foolishly dragging America deeper into a failed war that its taken almost 9 years to lose, but rather to slam Obama's suggested exit date from the Afghani quagmire.

Afghanistan is a large, mountainous country, easily defendable and difficult for invaders to either conquer or control. Al Qeda, America's original target in Afghanistan, is not bound to the country, and transfers its operations to other Islamic nations, like Pakistan, Somalia, etc. Having tens of thousands of American troops mired in a pointless war with no clear goal and essentially no plan is bad enough, sending in more soldiers is insanity. Republicans are deeply in need of some soulsearching, and had better find their roots prior to the 2010 midterm elections. Otherwise, they can count on remaining the minority party in both houses of Congress for even longer than America will be stuck in its new Vietnam.