Reasonable Cost?

Just finished watching the President's speech on his so-called new strategy for Afghanistan and there is way too much to comment on. I will do another, much more detailed post tomorrow.

But just a few initial thoughts - how can you say you are escalating a war and sending in more troops and that at the same time announce that the troops will start withdrawing or "transitioning" in eighteen months?

It is a total contradiction. All the enemy has to do is wait us out. They now know they just have to weather the storm and wait for us to lose our will to fight.

The President, in explaining why this war could not be an open-ended commitment said it was a war worth fighting but only at something akin to a reasonable cost.

These type or tone of words are simply mind-boggling to hear coming out of the mouth of the President of the United States during a wartime speech. How can you be more focused on costs than actually winning a war you deem so necessary?

He went on to talk about the economic costs. This was not the time or place to discuss this. He could have detailed these things during a later press conference. Right now, he was supposed to be detailing the strategy for victory and why we need to be fighting this war.

This is something he simply did not do in a convincing manner. It seemed like he was going through the motions. Many of the West Point Cadets in the audience were visibly nodding off.

The speech was more like a history major's dissertation. Cold. Academic. Passionless. Weak.

Again, more detail to come tomorrow. But I had to get my initial impressions out there. And viewing the post-speech coverage on all the different networks, I don't think I am too far off in my assessment.

Just understand one thing - a war, a real and just war that our leaders decide must be fought is by definition an open-ended commitment. That is, you fight the war until YOU WIN!!!! The end game, which you cannot predict when it will come, is VICTORY!!

Anything less and all we are doing is sending warriors to battle just for the show of it. Without the will to win, we will ultimately fail and suffer a humiliating defeat.

Our leaders, whether the President or others, must come to understand this fact. The must understand that the costs of losing far outweigh the sacrifices made in the pursuit of victory.

The costs of an Afghanistan and Pakistan in the hands of the Taliban and a resurgent Al Qaeda are simply not reasonable.