Palin Lauds Obama's Afghanistan Decision

By: Sergey Kadinsky
Topics: Afghanistan

(AP)

Sarah Palin is offering rare praise for President Obama following his speech last night in which he vowed to deploy 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan.

"At long last, President Obama decided to give his military commanders much of what they need to accomplish their mission in Afghanistan," Palin wrote on her Facebook page last night.

The 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee expressed gratitude that a president who ran on a platform opposing the surge in Iraq now supports a surge in Afghanistan. She also signaled confidence that a surge in Afghanistan can succeed.

"We now have an opportunity to build a bipartisan consensus in support of a vital national security priority: defeating Al-Qaeda and its violent extremist allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and ensuring that these countries never again serve as bases for terrorist attacks against America and our allies," she wrote.

The former Alaska governor was not entirely on board with Obama's speech last night, however. She took issue with the president setting July 2011 as a date to begin pulling troops out of Afghanistan, arguing the move amounts to "sending the wrong message" to our allies and enemies.

"We should be in Afghanistan to win," Palin wrote. She said a timetable signaled "a lack of resolve to our friends" and gave inspiration to American enemies to simply "wait us out."

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by 50BMS13 December 8, 2009 11:30 AM EST: Supporting Obama on a troop surge is to be expected and Sarah didn't let us down. Way to go Sarah; Reply to this comment


by cincipup December 2, 2009 11:14 PM EST: Sarah Palin isn't exactly "thrusting herself into the spotlight". She is simply posting her opinions on her Facebook page. People like the bloggers on this site and other news junkies are thrusting her into the spotlight with their eagerness for of the real life soap opera of politics.; Reply to this comment


by Unclemercer December 2, 2009 5:00 PM EST: Charming, charismatic Sarah Palin would be courageous and competent as Commander-in-Chief.; Reply to this comment


by aladdin777-2009 December 2, 2009 2:14 PM EST: Why not debate the issues, instead of engaging in the sick and vicious american sport of personally attacking Sarah Palin, or whatever other politician you happen to disagree with? If you cannot stick to the issues, then you cannot THINK straight.

And the issue is simple, in Afghanistan and everywhere else. There are two ways to go forward. One way is by killing people. The other way is by making agreements. We do not have any other options.

Unfortunately, Obama has chosen to continue to follow the choice of killing people. He is wrong about this. And so is Palin.

But engaging in disgusting attacks on either of them, from the left or the right, does no good whatsoever.

Before the Bush administration decided to deal with problems by killing people, the U.S. had successfully eliminated the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq through a negotiated series of disarmament checks. And, the U.S. was actively engaged in negotiating a resolution of the civil war in Afghanistan between the urban centers, the warlords in the North, and the Taliban.

If the U.S. wants to get OUT of Iraq and Afghanistan, the way forward is simple. Engage in meaningful peace talks which will allow us to leave.

This is how periods of warfare always end. The only question is how much longer the bloodlust will rule american policy, and how many more people will be slaughtered before the killing stops...; Reply to this comment


by amacd385 December 2, 2009 12:30 PM EST: The key to understanding the impossibility of Obama?s dilemma is that he is trying to defend a Global Empire with American blood and treasure.

Obviously Obama will not articulate this reality, and thus his plan entails seminal incongruities, which are seen by a few, but sensed by the wider audience of Americans.

Obama has tried to gloss over these incongruities by using the historical techniques of Empires? salesmen --- he has engendered fear by characterizing the enemy as a ?spreading cancer?, or ?falling dominos? like communism --- but the real spreading cancer is the Global Empire that hired him to guilefully defend it with American blood and treasure.

Historically, the salesmanship of Empire has always been based on promising the domestic population that they will share the ?spoils of war?, or the ?safety of winning?, in return for fighting, and paying, for imperialist adventures.

But Obama, although a consummate salesman, will encounter increasing resistance from the American populus because of the unique incongruities of fighting and paying for a Global Empire with domestic dollars and dead, and without any benefits actually accruing to the American public.

Obama?s dilemma in selling and defending the escalation of war first in Afghanistan, and then in Central Asia and the greater Middle East, is the same as his dilemma regarding his escalating defense of the very same Global Empire on Wall Street ---- that all the benefits are privatized and all the costs are socialized.

Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine; Reply to this comment


by steve8313 December 2, 2009 11:36 AM EST: I am embarrassed for this "woman".; Reply to this comment


by magicwolf1 December 2, 2009 11:34 AM EST: This mentally challenged Palin. She quit my state of Alaska, and how we wish this right-wing whack-job would stop being given this press, and just go away. Believe me, her intellect, if you can call it that, isn't up to the game, unless you call cunning ability to promote self, make money and cultivate the cult of celebrity intllect. She simply spews out the ridiculous rhetoric of the hard-turn GOP car that only goes in right-hand circles.; Reply to this comment

by bubbadubba December 2, 2009 11:34 AM EST

Well that proves the decision is totally stupid if the dingbat Palin supports it.
I support Obama as my elected President but I am starting to wonder if his decision was made to boost his popularity with Republicans.

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by stn_sage December 2, 2009 11:53 AM EST: There's every reason to believe just that!
He's offended some of his liberal core support groups by not making good on his promises...he's lost a substantial majority of independents...he can't win a second term! So, what's he do?
'Throw's a few bones' to the Republican extremists in the hope of getting them to back him instead of some wishy-washy GOPer they don't really like anyway!
And when you have McCain and Palin praising him for ESCALATING and EXTENDING the Afghanistan war, you KNOW it's the wrong thing to do!!


by hungry1968-17 December 2, 2009 11:24 AM EST: Here we go again.

This absolutely brainless moron, that doesn't have a clue about ANYTHING, is going to pipe her two cents in.

Then everyone is going to laugh at her, and we'll have to listen to the neo cons crying about how we always bring her up in an effort to trash her.

Why doesn't she just keep her clueless mouth shut, instead of constantly putting herself in the spotlight, and making a fool of herself?; Reply to this comment


by Justiceserved December 2, 2009 11:18 AM EST: After an eight year war led ineffectively by the Bush/Cheney cabal whose dithering cost us thousands of lives and over a trillion dollars in one unnecessary, and another poorly prosecuted war Palin should shut her big mouth. She could neither have understood, nor explained the prosecution of the Afghanistan war the way the President did. In addition we are a democracy run by political, not military leaders, and heave you ever known the military to ask for less troops? Ms. Dimwit is on the trail again. Have you ever seen a more pathetic lot; Cheney, Palin, Boehner, Ensign & the C Street crew, cheered on by Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, & O'Reilly? You couldn't find a more pathetic cast of characters!!!; Reply to this comment