The Obama Surge in Afghanistan - THE BACKGROUND

The New York Times: Has a report on process that lead to the Obama surge in Afghanistan. The process took to long, thinking through a problem does not equate with taking a long time, in 1976 Reagan had a simple answer to the question of the USSR and the relationship with the USA, the President stated, " We win they lose ", Obama is to much of windbag to get that simple message. That the problem when you elect an academic to be President, Woodrow Wilson was also an academic and look at the mistake he made at the end of the World War One, he was stubborn and would not deal withe Senate, thus the League of Nations didn't have the power to prevent World War Two. Read of the Day.

The Game of Iran

RCP: Interesting article on an academic role playing on how to deal with Iran next year, Iran wins of course as a result. I think from reading the article that the players missed one sore point, if Israel was to hit Iran Obama could not do a Suez of 1956, when the Ike was critical of UK and French action in Egypt, the Israeli lobby is powerful on the Hill, also there are the Obama poll ratings, guess witch side the US voter would support, Iran or Israel, yes you got it folks, Israel. Thus Obama would have to come out and support the move and warn Iran that should they take action then the USA would support Israel. If Obama was slow the Congress would demand that he takes action, lets recall its the Mid Term Congressional Elections next year in the USA, who in the Hill wants to be in the bad books of the Israeli Lobby. As an old Democratic politician used to say, all politics is local, and Obama might have the Nobel Peace Prize but Israel might have the votes on the Hill and the will to attack Iran.

Health Care Reform in TROUBLE

Bloomberg.com: Reports that POTUS is going back to the Hill to keep health care reform on the road, the problem is the public option and opposition from Conservative Democrats to any government funding of abortion. This blog is split on these two issues, when it comes to the public option it can be argued that it will bankrupt the USA, costs in health never go down, also older Americans will see their benefits cut as to help those with no insurance. On abortion, this blog support the rights women to choose, and that the costs should be meet by some measure by the US Government. Lets see how good a politician President Obama is, can he get the 60 votes needed to end debate and get a vote in the Senate before the end of the year.