Obama Running Out of Excuses to Put Off Decision on Afghanistan

President Obama and two of his chief henchmen, Rahm EmanuelRahm Emanuel and David AxelrodDavid Axelrod, have spent the past two weeks trying to convince everyone within earshot that the president was holding off on any decision to send more troops in Afghanistan until the presidential election results were settled. While the president had his skeptics, many were willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt.

Now that the run-off candidate in Afghanistan, Abdullah AbdullahAbdullah Abdullah, has dropped out of the run-off election, it would appear that President Obama would have clear sailing to announce his decision on how many, if any, troops he is prepared to send to Afghanistan, right?

Well, according to Robert Gibbs White House spokesman, the president is no closer to making a decision on troop levels in Afghanistan then he was three weeks ago. So after the so-called disputed election results in Afghanistan are eliminated as a reason for putting off a decision, the nagging question remains, why the delay?

It should be now be clear to every fair-minded person that President Obama is playing politics with the lives of our troops by waiting until the health care legislation is resolved before he upsets his political base by announcing any level of troop increase in Afghanistan. It is very clear that President Obama cares more about his precious health care legislation than the lives of the troops under his command, and no “photo-op” of Obama saluting coffins on their return to the U.S. should convince us otherwise.