Compare and Contrast:The Decider v.s. The Ditherer At West Point

Last night, President Obama chose to make his Afghanistan troop announcement at West Point, AKA “The Enemy Camp”. The response of the cadets was polite, but subdued, even after apparently being told to “respond enthusiastically”:

As usual Obama’s speech ran long, and was a snoozer as was evidenced by these cadets knocking nails, seen here, and here.

Der Spiegel Online has been brutal to Obama, lately:

Searching in Vain for the Obama Magic:

Never before has a speech by President Barack Obama felt as false as his Tuesday address announcing America’s new strategy for Afghanistan. It seemed like a campaign speech combined with Bush rhetoric — and left both dreamers and realists feeling distraught.

One can hardly blame the West Point leadership. The academy commanders did their best to ensure that Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama’s speech would be well-received.

Just minutes before the president took the stage inside Eisenhower Hall, the gathered cadets were asked to respond “enthusiastically” to the speech. But it didn’t help: The soldiers’ reception was cool.

President Bush, as hated and reviled by the anti-war left as he was, was always appreciated by our troops:

Related

See The WSJ for Fight Looms on How to Pay for New War Plan

The Democrats are going to push for a “war tax”. Republicans would like to continue to borrow, (how about not, guys), or allocate other funds, which is what I favor, but are Dems  going to go along with that, when they think can justify raising taxes? I think not.

Captain Ed has a few more thoughts on the speech:

The only sense of real mission I get from this speech is that we’re going to send 30,000 more troops now so we can start evacuating all of them in the summer of 2011.  It sounds like a slow-motion Dunkirk, and it recalls what Winston Churchill had to say after being congratulated for rescuing the entire British Army and a good portion of the French Army in 1940 from that massive cross-Channel evacuation: “Wars are not won by evacuations.”  And apparently Obama agrees, since he didn’t bother to talk about victory at all, but instead treated it as a massive responsibility that he reluctantly will fulfill.

What’s the point of sending troops into a far off war zone, if you know you’re going to be sending them home in a few months, win or lose?

MORE:

House Republicans Respond To Obama’s speech.

General Stanley A. McChrystal: Message to the troops

Video: Chairman Mike Pence Supports Sending Reinforcements to Afghanistan

Pence Supports Sending Reinforcements to Afghanistan: Cautions Against Timelines, Benchmarks and War Surtax

Taliban analysis of the Obama speech