Lacking the requisite political courage, thus trying to have it both ways, President Obama has spoken, and in his usual fashion, made illogical justifications for troop escalation.

He will increase troop numbers in Afghanistan by 30,000 but begin a withdrawal of troops in 2011.   Say what?

And how many US troops will continue to lose their lives or be profoundly wounded during that period, as Obama attempts to have his cake and eat it, too?

Obama continues acting like the middle of the road DINO he has shown himself to be.

The creator of the saying that the only things in the middle of the road are yellow lines and dead armadillos, Jim Hightower, has some words of wisdom to impart about the Afghanistan decision.

"Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to war we go! Pound the drums loudly, stand with your country proudly!

"Wait, wait, wait — hold it right there. Cut the music, slow the rush, and let's all ponder what Barack Obama, Roberts Gates, Stanley McChrystal and Co. are getting us into ... and whether we really want to go there. After all, just because the White House and the Pentagon brass are waving the flag and insisting that a major escalation of America's military mission in Afghanistan is a "necessity" doesn't mean it is ... or that We the People must accept it.

"Remember the wisdom of Mark Twain about war-whooping generals and politicians: "Loyalty to the country, always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it."

"How many more dead and mangled American soldiers does the government's "new" Afghan policy deserve? How many more tens of billions of dollars should we let them siphon from our public treasury to fuel their war policy? How much more of our country's good name will they squander on what is essentially a civil war?

"We've been lied to for nearly a decade about "success" in Iraq and Afghanistan — why do the hawks deserve our trust that this time will be different?

"Washington's war establishment asserts that adding some 30,000 more troops will let us greatly expand and train the Afghan army and police force during the next couple of years so they can secure their own country and we can leave. Mission accomplished!

"Nearly every independent military analyst, however, says this assertion is not just fantasy, it's delusional — it'll take at least 10 years to raise Afghanistan's largely illiterate and corrupt security forces to a level of barely adequate, costing us taxpayers more than $4 billion a year to train and support them.

"Obama has been taken over by the military industrial hawks and national security theorists who play war games with other people's lives and money. I had hoped Obama might be a more forceful leader who would reject the same old interventionist mindset of those who profit from permanent war. But his newly announced Afghan policy shows he is not that leader.

"So, we must look elsewhere, starting with ourselves. The first job of a citizen is to keep your mouth open. Obama is wrong on his policy — deadly wrong — and those of you who see this have both a moral and patriotic duty to reach out to others to inform, organize and mobilize our grassroots objections, taking common sense to high places.

"This is no time to be deferential to executive authority. Stand up. Speak out. It's our country, not theirs. We are America — ultimately, we have the power and the responsibility."

Finally, a telling indictment of President Obama from A Tiny Revolution:

"This is from the recent HBO documentary about Barack Obama's campaign. Watching it now made me angry all over again on behalf on people who believed in him, worked on his campaign and spent a big chunk of their lives getting him elected. You can say they were incredibly naive about American politics, which is true. But stealing from easy marks is still stealing.

" 'When I go into the White House I will be carrying your voices with me—your voices saying, 'please escalate the war in Afghanistan, cut Social Security to satisfy asshole investment bankers like Pete Peterson, and make sure Goldman Sachs pays out tens of billions in bonuses funded with our money.' What it comes down to is who do you trust.' "