A few observations about Obama’s strategy

Last night president Barak Obama laid out his strategy for the war on terror in Afghanistan. His plan to add 30,000 more troops over a 6-month period is a welcome surprise. The positive reaction from some conservatives left some on the Fox Network at a bit of a loss, especially Sean Hannity, who found it difficult to blast the president due to support for his plan from Senator John McCain and others.

While I am thankful for the “surge” support, I do have a few concerns about our president’s leadership in this war.  Perhaps these concerns are why his approval rating on Afghanistan is plummeting, though last night’s speech will no doubt help those negative ratings.

First, why the delay in setting forth this strategy. It has been months since the request for more troops came from his generals on the field. Then when there is a response, Obama cut the request by his generals by one-fourth. The reason he gave for this delay was that he needed time “to ask the tough questions.”  It goes without say that Afghanistan is a sticky wicket, but 3+ months is a lot of questions! But then to answer the more important question with less troops than his generals on the ground requested… well.

Second, Obama, no doubt in an effort to appease his cohorts on the left whom he knew would be up in arms with his “concession” for more troops, again announced as part of his exit strategy a time line beginning in 18-months. This is a big mistake as it helps the enemy plan their strategy and it sends a less than stellar message of certainty to our allies.

A third concern I have on another front, that being the job summit scheduled for tomorrow.  Really, a job summit? What has the administration been doing concerning the skyrocketing unemployment rate for the past year? What can we expect to come out of this summit? The problem the president faces is that when the first stimulus package was on the table, he said that without the package with its “guarantee” of stimulating the economy by creating jobs that unemployment would hit double digits. Guess what? With the stimulus package we are at double digit unemployment with no idea about job creation and a billion dollars more in debt.

So what are we to do? Well, we must give credit where credit is due and avoid what is at times nothing more than pure politics. For instance, Hannity’s apparent unwillingness to find any shred of positive in Obama’s message was a little over the top. Further, and this is the more important, we should continue to pray daily for our president and his staff (1 Tim. 2:1-2), remembering that “the authorities are ministers of God” (Rom. 13:6).