Harold's Left:

It's times like these that really make me trust Barack Obama's leadership and grit. Instead of just caving to Republican propaganda and being quickly complicit with Gen. McChrystal's request for 44,000 more troops, Obama is instead being the tough leader and demanding that his National Security Advisors give him a strategy that includes a legitimate way to exit the country. In a meeting with his War Council on Wednesday, the President was apparently pretty stern is his insistence that he be presented with an option in Afghanistan that is not "open ended".

This is an exhibition in quality leadership. The easy thing to do would be to just throw more troops at the the epic and colossal mind-freak that is Afghanistan. Some, mainly those on the right, would cheer saying "look... see, he is doing something". However, quick and over-bloated reaction to a problem does not constitute good leadership. Here's a pertinent military analogy. As a team leader on a small infantry/reconnaissance team, because of the forwardness of your training, it can be easy to think that 'more force' is the answer to so solve all of your encounters with an enemy. However, there are many times, critical times, when contemplative decisiveness, and perhaps restraint, is indeed the key. This is the scenario, similar to many I have faced in my time in the military...

You are the team leader of a five man element charged with infiltrating and gathering intelligence on a suspected Taliban house on the outskirts of a nearby city. You spend several days planning, rehearsing, and preparing for this dangerous mission. You are being asked by your commander to confirm or deny that the suspected HVT (High Value Target) is indeed running enemy operations from this house. You are to infiltrate the area, undetected, and conduct a 72-hour static surveillance in order to provide information that will accommodate a direct action strike against the insurgent compound. You insert in the dark of night with your team and set up a hasty surveillance site that is nearly undetectable from even 15 meters away. During the day, you and your team are all dug into this site. There is no leaving, there is barely any talking. During midday of the second afternoon you are on the ground, one of your men on flank security notices movement near your position. As you catch a glimpse of this person rising over the slope of the hill, you realize that he is merely a middle aged goat-herder, but he is headed straight for you. He moves up, tending to his goats, unaware of your presence until he steps on what should be solid ground, but is instead your camouflage net that is helping to conceal your position. You see his eyes recognize what is going on and you immediately have one of you men point his weapon at him and order him not to move...

Now (and yes, I realize I got a little carried away), this is where leadership comes in. You have three choices. Your first choice could be to use more force. You know that in the same area, only a few years earlier a Navy SEAL team was posed with this same quandary and they let the herder go, and he went straight to the Taliban, who then ambushed the SEALS killing all but one (true story). So with this in your mind, you perhaps think that killing this guy would be justified. Would it? It would be the easiest option. Just to meet the threat to your team with force. However, is that the sort of soldier you are? Your team does not want to abandon this mission. They want you to just shoot him with a silenced weapon and continue observing the compound. You feel pressure because you know that this operation is so important to your commander. You team tells you "we will vouch for you". Yet, this easy choice to cause more death, is not necessarily the best one. A real, tough leader takes the hard path, even when others say he shouldn't, and he does not let his pride to look aggressive override his restraint to stay justified in his actions. It's for this very reason that President Obama should be applauded for his ability to make the tough decisions even when the people surrounding him want him to make the easy one. That's perhaps the difference between Obama and Bush. Glad to finally have a strong leader as President.

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