David Boaz: It’s the End of 2009. Where Are Our Troops?

"This is not the change we hoped for. President Obama rose to power on the basis of his early opposition to the Iraq war and his promise to end it. But after a year in the White House he has made both of George Bush’s wars his wars.

"Speaking of Iraq in February 2008, candidate Barack Obama said, 'I opposed this war in 2002. I will bring this war to an end in 2009. It is time to bring our troops home.' The following month, under fire from Hillary Clinton, he reiterated, 'I was opposed to this war in 2002….I have been against it in 2002, 2003, 2004, 5, 6, 7, 8 and I will bring this war to an end in 2009. So don’t be confused.'

"Indeed, in his famous 'the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow' speech on the night he clinched the Democratic nomination, he also proclaimed, 'I am absolutely certain that generations from now we will be able to look back and tell our children that . . . this was the moment when we ended a war.'

"Now he has doubled down on the war in Afghanistan and has promised to keep the war in Iraq going for another 19 months, after which we will have 50,000 American troops in Iraq for as far as the eye can see. If McCain had proposed this sort of minor tweaking of the Bush policy, I think we’d see antiwar rallies in 300 cities. Calling the antiwar movement!

"President Obama’s promises are becoming less credible. He says that after all this vitally necessary and unprecedented federal spending, he will turn his attention to constraining spending at some uncertain date in the future. And he says that he will first put more troops into Afghanistan, and then withdraw them at some uncertain date in the future ('in July of 2011,' but 'taking into account conditions on the ground'). Voters are going to be skeptical of both these promises to accelerate now and then put on the brakes later."