President Obama's new Afghanistan plan could make coalition-building in Congress even harder
Afghanistan is now President Obama's war, and the immediate question in Washington is whether his military escalation will succeed. But beyond that, it's very possible that Obama's controversial new plan may have the unintended effects of jeopardizing his domestic priorities and making coalition-building in Congress more difficult than ever.
|
|
Historians such as Robert Dallek and Julian Zelizer point out that wars tend to disrupt and often shatter presidential agendas at home. It happened to Woodrow Wilson in World War I and to Harry Truman in Korea. Perhaps most relevant, it happened to Lyndon Johnson in Vietnam during the 1960s.
White House strategists dispute the notion that Afghanistan will be Obama's Vietnam because the commitment of U.S. troops is much less than it was in Indo-china, there is no superpower conflict to complicate matters, and it's not a civil war. But, as Dallek argues, if Obama's engagement in Afghanistan turns into an unwinnable, uncontrollable, costly morass, as Vietnam was, it will be a disaster. The result could be lasting damage to Obama's ability to win congressional approval for many of his long-term priorities, including legislation on climate change and immigration. Zelizer says presidents who become involved in protracted ground wars find that their presidencies are "defined" by their military commitments, not their domestic agendas.
The events in recent weeks have bolstered this argument, as Obama's announcement on Afghanistan crowded out his much-ballyhooed "jobs forum" at the White House two days later. At that event, the president hosted a lengthy public discussion with business, labor, academic, and political leaders on how to reduce unemployment, now at 10 percent. But compared with the Afghanistan decision, the media paid little attention.
One big challenge will be for Obama to keep core Democratic supporters in line behind funding the escalation, which is expected to cost at least $30 billion a year for the additional troops alone. Some antiwar liberals are so upset that they are threatening to withhold support, which means Obama may have to make up for their defections with conservatives who endorse his military surge. This won't be easy because there is so much bad blood between the GOP and the White House.
Click here to continue reading.
