@ fertiziling treefrog:
I think I understand your view, and the article you link is very interesting - but Lind doesn't address the timetable issue at all (two or three months before it came up), and I wonder if he wouldn't see it as a negative. A timetable tends to constrict maneuver in every way except one: It gives a President concerned about holding on to his anti-war base a little more room for political "maneuver," but probably wasn't necessary, and comes at the cost of de-stabilizing the real coalition of support for his war strategy (whatever it really is).
I keep on thinking of that Max Boot post written after the West Point speech, in which he offered support for the Afghanistan strategy premised on the notion that Obama could campaign for it with the same determination and stubbornness he showed on health care reform. Still makes me laugh.
@ fertiziling treefrog:
I think I understand your view, and the article you link is very interesting - but Lind doesn't address the timetable issue at all (two or three months before it came up), and I wonder if he wouldn't see it as a negative. A timetable tends to constrict maneuver in every way except one: It gives a President concerned about holding on to his anti-war base a little more room for political "maneuver," but probably wasn't necessary, and comes at the cost of de-stabilizing the real coalition of support for his war strategy (whatever it really is).
I keep on thinking of that Max Boot post written after the West Point speech, in which he offered support for the Afghanistan strategy premised on the notion that Obama could campaign for it with the same determination and stubbornness he showed on health care reform. Still makes me laugh.