Kenneth F. Erickson – 11/20/09

This page was last updated on November 20, 2009.

Obama right to take time on Afghanistan; Kenneth F. Erickson; Beaver County Times; November 20, 2009.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“There’s talk about President Barack Obama dragging his feet in his decision on the Afghan war and U.S. involvement in it.

“I think the longer he takes to make up his mind about our involvement, the better. We should not be there, plain and simple.”

[RWC] There’s a difference between taking an appropriate amount of time to making a decision and “dragging his feet.” Mr. Obama has been studying the Afghanistan situation at least since his election over a year ago and, in April I believe, told us his administration had completed its analysis. Mr. Obama appointed his own Afghanistan commander and that commander made a manpower request of Mr. Obama about two and a half months ago. Given how much time has passed, I believe it’s fair to say Mr. Obama is dithering.

“The Middle East is involved in a religious war. We have no business getting involved in such a conflict.”

[RWC] Fine, but as just about everyone else who makes the same comment, Mr. Erickson doesn’t say what we should do to make sure Afghanistan doesn’t once again become a safe haven for terrorists to launch attacks against the United States and our citizens and interests around the world.

“It even comes down to terrorists like the religious zealot at Fort Hood.

“He was an officer in our military, yet he placed on his business cards advertisement to the fact that he was a soldier of Islam.

“And we allow such destructive behavior in our military. He should be convicted of treason and executed for his decision to murder all those true American soldiers.

“At the same time, we need to review the politically correct way that we look upon the actions of military personnel. No, they don’t have a right to profess their allegiances to borderline organizations.

“Toughen up, America.

“Stop the needless deaths of our soldiers in a country whose people believe their deaths are more honorable than their desire to live.”

[RWC] Exactly the same thing could have been said about Japanese soldiers during World War II. Does Mr. Erickson believe we should have stopped fighting before we defeated Japan?