Op-Ed: Obama has lost American support for Afghanistan war

As President Barack Obama spins his wheels in a bog that many consider a myopic vision of health care reform, the political capital required to manage two wars and a battered economy has dried up.

Recent national polls indicate that Obama has lost popular support for the Afghan War, however his mission creep is just starting to kick in. Secure parts of that country voted in a now disputed presidential election Thursday and quietly coming through the bureaucratic defense pipeline is a request for even more U.S. troops, on top of the compromise 17,000 additional Obama approved last winter. Mr. Obama failed to secure significant troop level increases from the Afghanistan war coalition. Current U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan is 62,000 but is scheduled to jump to 68,000 in coming weeks, not including the 17,000 additional troops in the aforementioned bureaucratic pipeline. During his long, expensive presidential campaign, the then-freshman senator was an ardent anti- (Iraq) war candidate who appealed to the left. The Illinois Democrat argued strongly against Bush's Iraq troop surge, saying it was doomed to failure and would surely increase sectarian violence. The previous Republican administration used a surge strategy in Iraq that was considered highly successful by most analysts. Since the Republican's national security strategy has succeeded in Iraq, freeing U.S. troops for deployment elsewhere, Obama is in the rather awkward position of likely arguing for the second troop surge of his own young administration. A recent ABC poll starkly reveals the steep drop in public support for Obama’s Afghanistan war strategy. According to an LA Times article dated August 19, most Americans believe that historically troubled land is not worth fighting for -- and only 24% back a troop increase. While 45% say the American troop commitment there should actually be reduced. Today, the dismal outlook of Obama’s foreign affairs was amplified by a report from a top American military leader. "I think it is serious and it is deteriorating, and I've said that over the past couple of years -- that the Taliban insurgency has gotten better, more sophisticated in their tactics," said Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff in the LA Times piece. Adding to a growing chorus of dissenting voices, John McCain, Obama’s Republican opponent in last year’s election, said, "I think you need to see a reversal of these very alarming and disturbing trends on attacks, casualties and areas of the country that the Taliban has increased control of.” Obama’s dissenters need not look far for more ammunition to launch against Obama's foreign policy. Sectarian violence in Afghanistan and Iraq has returned with a vengeance since Obama took office more than 7 months ago. Obama is yet to bring American troops home from Iraq, all though he campaigned to a theme of bringing the troops home. Recent early-morning blasts, by far the deadliest attacks since the June 30 withdrawal of U.S. troops from cities, raise fresh questions about whether American troops disengaged from Baghdad too quickly and whether the recent violence will lead them to try to assert more control over security, at the risk of embarrassing and unsettling Iraq's government.