Michael GoldENfarb and the Middle Path Posted by Ilan Goldenberg

I'll have more on my take on Obama's Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy over the next few days as I digest it.  But in the meantime just wanted to clear up some silliness from Michael Goldenfarb.   Goldenfarb uses a quote from an administration official saying Obama is going "all in," and compares it to my argument that Obama is unlikely to choose the "all in" approach advocated by his former boss John McCain.  He then concludes:

The president is going "all in" and adding more troops to the fight. His most vocal supporters on the left had no idea this was coming and if you'd asked them yesterday what they thought of such a plan they would have said it was neocon fanaticism. Now watch how they fall into line. But this policy announcement shows just how little influence, and how little insight, the progressives have right now on this administration.

Ummmm..  Really.  4,000 new troops for training purposes is "all in"?  What is Goldenfarb talking about?  Unfortunately, the Politico article that Goldenfarb cited is now been updated and no longer includes either the official he quoted or two paragraphs later another official saying that of the three options Obama chose the middle course.  But it's pretty simple.  Just look at the objectives of the White House review.  It's primarily about counter-terrorism with a recognition that you have to do some counterinsurgency and a lot of civilian capacity to get there. 

Contrary to conservative claims that most progressives don't support this approach, there is and has generally been strong support for this.  CAP supported it both with it's report this week and a similar report in November of 2007.  And Obama's approach is very much in line with NSN's principles document from a month ago. 

I really don't get how conservatives are claiming victory?  Especially since this is a war they chose to neglect for years as the situation deteriorated.

Comments

[Don Bacon]

Just because a neo-liberal interventionist calls himself a progressive doesn't make it so. True progressives want out of these fiascoes. So the conservative are correct to call this mission creep strategy, with more military than Bush deployed and more financial resources committed, a victory.

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[dstt]

I don’t know why Mr. Goldfarb felt the need to connect liberals with D&D, but his comments were ill-informed...