A War Not Based On Fear

A reader writes:

You wrote:

"The more I think about this (Obama's Afghanistan move), the smarter it is - both militarily and politically. But that tends to happen with Obama decisions, doesn't it?"

Exactly! The most fascinating thing about our president is that he doesn't base his decisions partly on a desire of winning the daily news race. You really have to respect a person who lays out a plan that, at least initially, everyone is going to hate. President Bush had to scare us into seeing things his way ("we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud"). How cool is it to have a president who trusts us to understand his decisions on realistic terms, without having to result to such tactics? Besides, for years most rational people have agreed that there's no ideal outcome for us in Afghanistan. Why should we blame the president for coming to the same conclusion?