By Bob Steiner

A few nights ago President Obama ventured into heretofore untouched territory  at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point New York.  He was there to give a speech on his strategy for Afghanistan.  Many of The cadets present in the audience  will soon be serving with combat units in that beleaguered country.  While they listened to what the Commander-in-Chief had to say, and clapped their hands at all the right places, they appeared to be strangely quiet and totally lacking in enthusiasm.  Anyone watching the program could tell that this was just another photo-op for Mr. Obama. If he had hoped to gain an endorsement for his Afghan policy from those who will be doing the fighting, He failed to make the grade, at least not on this night. It was just another photo session and the 4,000 young men and women present were just stage props.

During his speech the President announced that he would order 30,000 more troops to deploy to Afghanistan.  General Stanley McChrystal had requested  40,000 troops  in mid-October.  It is certainly deplorable that it took Mr. Obama such a long time to respond to the request. I have previously commented on the Afghan situation on this blog (See: Commander-in-Chief Rules, 18 Oct. and Obama, A Peacemaker? , 9 Oct. )

As a Vietnam combat veteran, I find particularly galling that we seem to be relying so heavily on manpower to get the job done.  The forces are extremely limited in their rules of engagement and do not have access to all the weapons in their military arsenal. Personally, I would rather see more weapons sent and less troops.  For example, Napalm could be particularly effective in the mountainous terrain there.  As I have previously stated,  as a condition to our remaining there,  we should  insist that the Karzai Government institute a 100% draft of all potential draft-age young men. Eradication of  the poppy crop should also be a priority.

With the drug problems that plague our European allies, I am surprised that they are not more supportive of our actions in Afghanistan. I am also amused by the change in attitude that our allies now show towards our president.  Since being elected he has always been referred to in glowing terms. Now that he has decided to send additional troops to Afghanistan, our European friends, seem to be changing their minds with regard to our leader from Chicago.  In an “on-line” article on Dec 2,  the influential German leftist news magazine“Der Spiegel” (www.Spiegel.de) was quite critical of him, in a complete change of direction. For  his decision in sending more  troops, just shortly before he is going to leave for Oslo  to accept his Nobel Peace Prize on December 10th, they  mockingly referred to him as the “Nobelkriegspreistraeger” (“Nobel War Prize Winner”).

My heart goes out to those loyal American Army cadets who had to sit through this display of self- aggrandizement that the gentleman from Chicago exposed them to. West Point has been a special, hallowed place for our soldiers.  Our military has no active political role.  In line with their constitutional obligations, our soldiers do not engage in active politics.  With this in mind, many of our readers might question his appearance at West Point and interpret this visit as having political motivation behind it.  This certainly was not a pep talk.  Unfortunately to many, it was just another of  his  daily  flirtations  with the media.

Regrettably, in comparing this intrusion to other past events involving the military academy, the year 1780 comes to mind.  At that time,  another famous “liberal American” visited the installation. He had developed a plan to surrender West Point to the British Army. This, of course was one General Benedict Arnold.

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