Here we go.

Here we go.

Uh oh: Rumsfeld says ‘a trained ape’ could outperform Obama in Afghanistan


You know it wasn’t a racist comment. You also know it doesn’t matter. MSNBC has their see-what-racists-all-Obama-opponents-are talking point for the next few days.

More to the point, though, knowing Donald Rumsfeld he doesn’t care about any of that, which is one of the things I love about him. The far more important point here is the point itself - that the U.S. had a good relationship with Karzai in Afghanistan when the Bush Administration was in office. It was only when Obama and crew came in that we suddenly couldn’t work with him.

Enjoy a minute’s reminder of the refreshing and honest leadership we had not so very long ago in this country:http://youtu.be/yCmz0DSZR7Y



Obama does seem to have a blind spot when it comes to status of forces agreements. He walked away from the one we should have had with Iraq too. You don’t supposed . . . Obama doesn’t really believe in America’s role as a global leader, do you? Nah!

None of this is to suggest, by the way, that Karzai is without faults. Karzai is a player, and he will do what he thinks is in his best interests. But when Rumsfeld and the rest of the Bush team were in charge, Karzai could clearly see it was in his best interests to line up with the United States. Now? America is retreating and showing weakness on every front, and Russia is on the march.

Who’s to say it’s not more in Afghanistan’s strategic interests at this point to align with Putin? After all, it is the Russians’ turn to invade if memory serves, and clearly no one in the West has the intestinal fortitude to stop Putin from going anywhere he wants to go. Obama sure as hell doesn’t.

The point here is not to excuse Putin for anything he’s done, nor is it to excuse Karzai for siding with the bad guys.

They both deserve condemnation. But people who understand geopolitical relationships understand how to make a guy like Karzai see that it’s more in his best interests to side with us. The Bush Administration knew how to do that. The Obama Administration either doesn’t know how or doesn’t think it’s important.

So would a trained ape really do better? I guess it would depend how well trained