Mr. Obama's presidency is now being defined by four intractable problems: (1) Persistent High Unemployment due to the intractable Great Recession; (2) a Financial Giveaway that protected rich Wall Street bankers at the expense of the masses who are suffering economically from the Great Recession the bankers triggered; (2) A BP Environmental Disaster that reveals the feckless incompetence of the Federal Gov't — i.e., Obama's Katrina Moment; and (4) his enthusiastic embrace and expansion of the Afghan War into the AFPAK Quagmire.
The surprising and speedy crash of General Stanley McCrystal has been seen in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the wider region as just one more sign of the mess that the US and its NATO allies face in what is looking increasingly like an unwinnable conflict.
The Afghan Taliban are describing the general’s sacking as a military victory—coming as it does at the height of their summer offensive; the most hurtful rumor going around Kabul and Islamabad is that McChrystal wanted to be removed because he didn’t want to have to take responsibility for a losing war. The Taliban claimed another victory when Britain announced a week later that its troops would withdraw from Sangin, a remote and ever more deadly region of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan—although they will be replaced by US marines.
