Late last week the group Voters For Peace targeted their followers to take the first three days of this working week to call the White House to oppose sending more troops to Afghanistan, because "there is still time for the American people to influence this decision!"
Not anymore.
Yesterday White House officials told members of the Washington press corps that they would send between 25,000 to 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, though as the NY Times reports, the final number remained in flux.
If the 30,000 troop increase is accurate, it would be less than the recommendation by the commander in the field there, General Stanley McChrystal. However, there are reports that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will lean on NATO countries to pick up that additional 10,000 troop slack when meeting with foreign ministers in Brussels next week.
Good luck with that, Madam Secretary.
Liberal Democrats in Congress aren't happy about the escalation. This was Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich on Hardball last night with Chris Matthews.
Meanwhile, USA Today reports that public approval of the President's handling of the war in Afghanistan has "plummeted".
The poll, conducted with the Gallup organization, shows 55% disapprove of his handling on the issue, with just 35% approving. That's a reversal of his 56% approval rating on the topic just four months ago.
The American public apparently is incredibly divided on the effort overall in Afghanistan, according to a CNN poll released yesterday, that actually showed a majority against the war, 52% to 45%.
The President's deliberate assessment of which way to go in Afghanistan has been subject to ridicule, but also to praise. In the Washington Post Obama's handling of the Afghanistan situation is being called "a spectacle of deliberation unlike anything seen in the White House in recent memory."
And Britain's Defense Secretary is also blasting Obama for his deliberate pace.
Critics have been calling this Obama's Vietnam. For the sake of everybody, let's hope that's not the case.
