Commander-in-Chief: The Procrastinator

The headlines are starting to get annoying now. It is sad how public this decision making process has become. The most powerful person on the planet appears as if he is being overwhelmed. Not to say that it is an easy decision; far from it. He just needs to follow the criticisms he had for his predecessor and ignore his VP. To quote Tom Ricks, "when was the last time Joe Biden was right about anything?"

The United States has adopted the doctrine of population-centric COIN. This is not a government-centric doctrine. Look at the U.S. execution of COIN in Iraq during 2007. U.S. forces stood as a buffer between the democratically elected government and its revolting people. The U.S. stepped in to protect the population from an al-Qaeda franchise, Iranian sponsored Shia militias conducting a genocide campaign against Sunni Arabs, and its own government assisting in the attempted genocide.

The excuse of waiting for legitimate election results is just that; an excuse. A healthy amount of caution and deliberation is preferred to attacking the wrong country, but troops are already in theater. Give the U.S. mission what it needs or pull out.

So here's some of the latest from The Procrastinator:

Obama not yet sure of Afghanistan troop decision timing
President Barack Obama has not yet determined whether he will make a decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan before the November 7 election runoff, a US official said Tuesday.


U.S. decision can't wait for Afghan legitimacy: Gates
The United States cannot wait for problems surrounding the legitimacy of the Afghan government to be resolved before making a decision on troops, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said.


FACTBOX: Obama hearing range of views on Afghanistan
U.S. President Barack Obama has not decided whether to wait for the results of an Afghanistan presidential election run-off on November 7 to announce a new war strategy.