Eugene Robinson: Bring Them Home, Mr. President

[babylonsister]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20091112_bring_them_home_mr_president/

Bring Them Home, Mr. President
Posted on Nov 12, 2009

By Eugene Robinson


The most dreadful burden of the presidency—the power to send men and women to die for their country—seems to weigh heavily on Barack Obama these days. He went to Dover Air Force Base to salute the coffins of fallen troops. He gave a moving speech at the memorial service for victims of last week’s killings at Fort Hood. On Veterans Day, after the traditional wreath-laying at Arlington National Cemetery, he took an unscheduled walk among the rows of marble headstones in Section 60, where many of the dead from our two ongoing wars are buried.

snip//

Following his visits to Dover, Fort Hood and Arlington Cemetery, Obama should focus the attention of the White House and the Pentagon on a question that too often is overlooked: What troops?

Our all-volunteer armed forces have been at war for eight years with no end in sight, serving tours of duty of up to 15 months in the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan. Many units have been called to serve multiple tours. By contrast, most Vietnam War veterans served a single one-year tour.

Fighting two big simultaneous wars with our armed forces stretched so thin has put enormous emotional, psychological and economic stress on military families. The suicide rate in the armed forces has climbed steadily, as has the incidence of stress disorders among veterans. The Pentagon is adept at shuttling its people around and has worked out how to provide the 40,000 troops McChrystal wants. But any new deployment would come at a heavy cost—a human cost—far beyond the billions of dollars required to train, equip, transport and maintain the units being sent.

There are reports that Obama has refused to sign off on any plan until his advisers tell him how they propose to end the expanded war they advocate. But this sounds like just another way of saying: Tell me how we’re going to fix the mistake we’re about to make.

As long as our goals in Afghanistan remain as elusive as they are now, Obama shouldn’t be sending troops. He should be bringing them out.

[indepat]

1. Surely the parents of thousands lament with perhaps the unspoken plea, "Bring him (her) home,

bring him home. :D

[mod mom]

2. Thank you Mr Robinson! I hope President Obama heeds your advise.

Does any else here think of a kind caring grandfather whenever they see Eugene Robinson?

[Bette Noir]

5. I see him as a favorite uncle, but I may be older than you are.

He's certainly someone I'd like to share a Thanksgiving turkey with.

[Peacetrain]

6. I have that same reaction..

[hileeopnyn8d]

12. Oy!

I must be even older! He was born in 1963, he's a year younger than me. I see him as someone I could be friends with, and have long, long conversations with after dinner.


ETA:
I was wrong, he's not younger than me, he was born in 1955. So, I can now say I see him as a big brother.

It's tough getting old!

[Voltaire]

3. There is really nothing else to do

Afghanistan cannot be saved, democratized, rid of the Taliban, whatever the damned mission is, if you even want to call it that. We are wasting the lives of our soldiers for no apparent reason. Time for this gutter depravity to come to an end. In Iraq as well.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

4. Take Mr. Robinson's advice President Obama

Don't make a mistake you may regret for the rest of your life.

[Clio the Leo]

7. I have never seen him more doubtful than he was this morning...

.... and by "he" of course I mean the President not Brother Eugene.

Dylan just played a clip from his press briefing in Japan earlier today and he said something along the lines of "when I send more of our young men and women into harms way and spend BILLIONS of our tax payers money, that we're actually keeping America more safe." (his emphasis on billions.)

That's the first time I remember him bringing up the LITERAL cost and, in today's economy, that admission is a big deal.

[jasi2006]

8. I wrote this in an earlier post. I agree with Mr. Robinson

You don't need to win the 2012 election...you have nothing to prove by running again. Just prove that you are the best President that we have had in the last two decades and take the boldest action yet, defying the RW war hawks and chickenhawks: Bring the troop s home. But before you do, get the jobs out there to give them work when they return. There is a lot that this nation needs done. If the private sector won't do it, let the government do it the "infrastructure corps" fixing our roads and bridges, sewers, water pipes, etc. that the crooked contractors and organized crime syndicates won't do for reasonable prices. Support the Wall Street groups that want to invest in America and not in themselves.

[babylonsister]

10. I want him to win the next election. I can't think of one

other person who can handle what the US is going through right now, and that includes Dems as well as rethugs.
Can you?

[HopeOverFear]

9. sigh...and when he doesn't...

? I'm just saying.

[David Zephyr]

11. K&R.

!

[TheKentuckian]

13. K&R