"Indecision" Defined

President Obama’s speech to the nation last evening was not particularly anything special. I’m sugarcoating it. The speech was weak. The President is sending more troops, which is what General McChrystal asked him to do. Ok, not the exact amount he was asked for, but I’ll give Obama credit for finally acknowledging that the war is far from over. It’s good he wants us all to be united and on the same page. But, he did not speak with much conviction, or really tell us any sort of gameplan other than that he was sending more troops. Furthermore, I’d say he made a huge error in proclaiming to our enemies a date for troop withdrawal (which, we all know is wishful thinking and was said as nothing more than to serve as a “nugget” to all the voters he had on his side that were told the war would be ending in a timely manner upon his election.) No coincidence his date for beginning the withdrawal is right before the 2012 election. Obama was very indecisive on a lot of fronts. Some say indecision is not a sign of weakness. I say, momentary indecision in general is just human nature, but if it’s treated as something that one needs to remedy—by finding the root cause of the indecision and then ultimately, (and in a timely manner), coming to a conclusion—it’s not necessarily a bad thing. However, if the indecision becomes a gripping tentacle over the person and that in turn morphs into a higher level of doubt, what’s occurring then is that you are succumbing to the “fear of fear” factor and not handling the matter at hand. Our President is in a tough spot, but it’s a spot he put himself in. Whether members of his campaign, the left-spinning media, or Obama himself hinted to America that the war would be ending once he was elected, is irrelevant here. That message was conveyed to the voters as part of his platform. But right there you have to blame the voters. Any American who voted thinking that the day Obama stepped into the White House that all the troops would be sent home was delusional. Even if Obama wanted that to occur, things just don’t work like that. Wars don’t simply end in that manner. Now Obama was really in a no-win situation last night, again, only at the fault of his own, but could have done one of two things. He could have strongly conveyed a message that he was sending more troops, delivered a gameplan (sans any talk of withdrawal), and only focused on how to succeed. That would have angered the liberals, but it would have been the right thing to do (no pun intended). Or, he could have said he was not sending any more troops and that he was going to begin to take action with regards to bringing the soldiers home in a realistic time frame. Why did he not do the latter? Because he knows that the latter is an impossible task with the way things are in the Middle East. Our soldiers are in a place that is as underdeveloped as Central Africa, and our presence is needed. To ensure long-term stability, a long-term non combat-type presence is also required, and the point of sending these troops at this time is to transition our armed forces towards them establishing their own. But he failed to even acknowledge that basic fact. By simply stating he was sending more troops and not showing the American people why they are going, or what we plan to accomplish, he is just sending them into the fire. Today, you have both the left and the right unsatisfied with his “play it to the middle” mentality.

There are plenty of voices to assist Obama if he is wishy-washy on strategy, and liberals in general are known as wishy-washy and overly indecisive. I can guarantee you John McCain would have given us a much stronger message last night. A more conservative commander figuratively and literally sticks to his guns (right, wrong or indifferent), but Obama will never show such character. Character shows heart. And confidence. We want our leaders who are supposed to be guiding us to have the most character possible—especially in matters of national security. For Obama to also bring up issues like the economy or any other topics, he was deflecting from the matter at hand. No other issue should have been discussed, as no other issue was pertinent or relevant to discussing a gameplan for success in the war. When you are Commander-in-Chief during a war, you MUST be as DECISIVE as you can be and handle things in a much timelier manner—that’s simply the standard a war President must be held to that distinguishes him from your or I. That all being said, I think Obama’s overly lengthy three month period of indecision not only morphed into higher doubts in his own confidence, but all the way to fear and panic. Those feelings should have been squashed and replaced with confidence, and in turn, our enemies should now be the ones worried. If I’m the enemy and I was watching that, I would not be shaking in my cave at all. God Bless the troops and I pray every day that no lives are lost. They are the heroes and no matter where one stands politically, they need our support.