No Easy Answers

President Obama is about to make his decision as to the number of new troops he will send to Afghanistan. He has been taking his time with the decision which will almost certainly decide Afghanistan's fate as a democracy. If his decision is sound and ends in success, history will say the President was brilliant. If his decision results in failure, history will not celebrate his cerebral decision and in three years his bags will be lined up on the White House steps waiting for the Mayflower Moving Van.
Now of all times, blunt logic is needed. The President must state the facts, appealing to the nation's brain rather than it's heart. Times like these don't call for a misty eyed mood. Tears of the heart will only cause us to make the same mistakes we made in Vietnam. Lessons learned from the past are only as good as our understanding of the past.
Will leaving or staying in Afghanistan make America and the world a safer place? There are no easy answers now nor were the answers easy in 1973 when America signed the Paris Peace Accord and left South Vietnam. Just as it was almost 40 years ago, today's debate about war has been unfolding in the White House, Congress and Main St USA. There are always lots of errors in the path of understanding so what ever form President Obama's decision takes we won't know of it's success or failure for a long time.
Mr President just give us the facts! How much will it cost? How long will we be there? What form will our military strategy take? What are our goals? Why are we there in the first place? When we know the answer to all these questions, our acceptance of your decision will be easy but if history repeates itself our excuse will continue to be there are No Easy Answers.