by Mark Silva
Our friend and colleague Clarence Page notes that President Barack Obama has lost at least one old friend on one issue: Chicago's Bill Ayers, on the escalation of the war in Afghanistan.
Obama was criticized for "palin' around with terrorists'' during the presidential campaign by Republican Sarah Palin, who attempted to tie the Democrat's politics to those of Ayers, the University of Illinois at Chicago education professor and erstwhile leader of the radical Weather Underground in the 1960s who supported Obama's early campaigns for political office.
But now it's Ayers who is criticizing the president's new policy of deploying 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan while promising to start drawing down those forces in July of 2011 -- suggesting that another act of a long-running play is opening.
"I am here demonstrating against the war because I am appalled and alarmed that once again we are escalating the war,'' Ayers said, in the interview above captured on the streets of Chicago this week. "The idea that there are benchmarks for getting out is a myth and a lie.
"The fact is that, you know, you cannot imagine a scenario where six months from now or 18 months from now the administration would say, well we didn't meet our benchmarks, therefore we're leaving. This is an absolute tragedy for the Middle East, for Afghanistan and us.''
Listening to Ayers lament the escalation of a war which indeed most Americans are wary about these days takes us back to the 1960s, Page notes in his column. Afghanistan is not Vietnam, the president said during his nationally televised address from West Point this week.
"There are those who suggest that Afghanistan is another Vietnam,'' Obama said. " They argue that it cannot be stabilized, and we're better off cutting our losses and rapidly withdrawing. I believe this argument depends on a false reading of history.
" Unlike Vietnam, we are joined by a broad coalition of 43 nations that recognizes the legitimacy of our action. Unlike Vietnam, we are not facing a broad-based popular insurgency. And most importantly, unlike Vietnam, the American people were viciously attacked from Afghanistan, and remain a target for those same extremists who are plotting along its border. '
This may not be the 1960s anymore, but the White House is attempting to make it clear that, borrowing a line from the playwright Samuel Beckett so popular in those days, there is an "endgame.''
Ayers isn't buying what Obama is selling, but this is what it is:
"The absence of a time frame for transition would deny us any sense of urgency in working with the Afghan government,'' Obama said. " It must be clear that Afghans will have to take responsibility for their security, and that America has no interest in fighting an endless war in Afghanistan. ''
Endgame was a play in one act.
"Finished, it's finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished,'' Clov says in the opening. "Grain upon grain, one by one, and one day, suddenly, there's a heap, a little heap, the impossible heap....I can't be punished any more.''
This would seem to be only the second act of the war in Afghanistan.
Comments
This guy Ayers is a total goof! Probably the best thing that happened to Obama in months is this distancing from Ayers.
Posted by: wingnut master | December 3, 2009 10:34 AM
HUH? first Rev Write now Ayers his racist anti America base must must be going nuts!!! I love it!!!!
Posted by: ChiTown | December 3, 2009 10:48 AM
Mark Silva: this article is terribly disingenuous considering that you are taking Palin's suggestion that they were pals and assuming that they are now breaking up as friends, when they were never 'friends'. This kind of reporting is very yellow. Even the article URL is disingenuously written.
Posted by: Joe | December 3, 2009 11:16 AM
Hey Joe, I have a nice bridge for sale.
Posted by: ChiTown | December 3, 2009 2:06 PM
Joe, I guess the rock you've been living under had no TV, newspaper, web etc.....pResident Soetero has CONFIRMED that they were buddies and that the story about the fundraiser inn Ayers home was true.
I think I hear your mom calling, better get upstairs it's snacky time.......
Posted by: NJ Mike | December 3, 2009 2:21 PM
"The idea that there are benchmarks for getting out is a myth and a lie." Could have sworn he said the same thing about Bush. The most freverent supporters, special members, have so little faith in BO's abilities (maybe more like the abilities of those who surround him). Nevertheless, THIS would be a DOWNFALL. If the way BO has conducted his staff and campaing is any indication of the execution of the war in Afganistan-- we've got a shot! (insert bumper sticker:HOPE) If not (more like those jobs saved spin), what's that? He needs another term? It's best that Washington power doesn't change in the midst of our fiasco? Where have I heard this before? Presidents come and go, USof A policy is forever. It would take several presidents to over turn the deliniation of our current concerns.
Posted by: Palin' around with flees. | December 3, 2009 2:43 PM
Say it ain't so, Joe. What's next, you're going to discover that the IPCC and the lapdog media have been trying to "hide the decline?" or that ACORN has been encouraging and engaging in corruption? OH NO, JOE!
Posted by: The Joe Schmo Show | December 3, 2009 3:18 PM
Palin' around with terrorists" is perhaps cleverly and conveniently misspelled? Must have been absent the day they covered "double the consonant before adding -ing". HA! Poor Bill Ayers: failed "little c communist" can't even hand pick a useful idiot that will pan out for him. Hyde Park potlucks will be a little less festive over the holidays, I bet.
Posted by: Kd | December 3, 2009 3:41 PM
Come on Mark....they may never have been "friends" but political associates would be a better description. Obama is learning that what worked in "Chicago" doesn't translate that well to America. Chicago is definitely a different breed of city what the Ayers, Wrights, Emaneuls, Axelrods and Burris types.
Posted by: Sue | December 3, 2009 6:20 PM
NJ Mike, I have no idea what you're on about, but please, be an adult in public conversation.
Posted by: Joe | December 3, 2009 7:28 PM
Obama just started his political career at Ayers' home, but he hardly knows the guy. Come on, I'm sure my neighbor, that I hardly know, would sponsor me if I wanted to start a political career in his house. Happens all the time. Like when you spend 20 years in a church and then ONE DAY you realize that the reverend is a RADICAL.
Of all the place in the US, Obama picks Chicago. I guess the ghettos of Hawaii were too tough for Barry.
Barry was connected to Ayers. Michelle was connected to Ayers' wife. They both worked at the same law firm.
Posted by: Free to Watch Whatever I Want | December 3, 2009 10:34 PM
See the reason Obama was elected is because "reporters" like Silva protected him. They let Obama tell all his lies and just repeated them, heck they still do, without questioning. They covered up that Obama is a radical, with lots of socialist, communist and radical associates. We wouldn't want the American people to know this stuff.
And really in the scheme of history, it's more important for the American people to know about Sarah Palin's wardrobe than the future president's real beliefs. Ain't that right, mark?
Posted by: Free to Watch Whatever I Want | December 3, 2009 10:41 PM
Mark Silva: this article is terribly disingenuous considering that you are taking Palin's suggestion that they were pals and assuming that they are now breaking up as friends, when they were never 'friends'. This kind of reporting is very yellow. Even the article URL is disingenuously written.
Posted by: Joe | December 3, 2009 11:16 AM
Too funny! I guess you outed Obama after all, Silva.
Posted by: Free to Watch Whatever I Want | December 3, 2009 10:54 PM
Noted Terrorist Disagrees with Incompetent President
Posted by: Chris | December 3, 2009 11:21 PM
Man some of you are really working on those tin foil hats.
Posted by: Joe | December 4, 2009 11:03 AM
if ayers wasn't friend at 1 time why did he visit white house so much. Obama likes to keep enemies close? Hardly
Posted by: Carl | December 11, 2009 1:57 AM
if ayers wasn't friend at 1 time why did he visit white house so much. Obama likes to keep enemies close? Hardly
Posted by: Carl | December 11, 2009 1:57 AM
@Carl
Bill Ayers never visited the White House, Carl.
Get your facts straight, neocon punk.
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/10/30/no-bill-ayers-didnt-visit-the-white-house/
Posted by: Harry Samwell | December 16, 2009 12:19 AM