AFGHAN DILEMMA - AT 7:59 P.M. ET:  First, my apologies for getting back online so late.  I was getting some very good background information today on Iran and Western Europe, and these things can take time. 

We've written here before that there are serious crunches coming up for the Obama administration - Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea, and a host of domestic issues, which will collide in the autumn, just as the 2010 midterm campaigns get started.  One of Obama's huge problems is that he never matches rhetoric with policy.  Lots of promises, very little effective execution.  Government as show business.

Now Afghanistan is facing the crunch, as The New York Times reports:

WASHINGTON — As the American military comes to full strength in the Afghan buildup, the Obama administration is struggling to come up with a long-promised plan to measure whether the war is being won.

Those “metrics” of success, demanded by Congress and eagerly awaited by the military, are seen as crucial if the president is to convince Capitol Hill and the country that his revamped strategy is working. Without concrete signs of progress, Mr. Obama may lack the political stock — especially among Democrats and his liberal base — to make the case for continuing the military effort or enlarging the American presence.

That problem will become particularly acute if American commanders in Afghanistan seek even more troops for a mission that many of Mr. Obama’s most ardent supporters say remains ill defined and open-ended.

COMMENT:  Let's hope that the Obamans handle this better than health care.   Obama can't worry too much about his liberal base, a good part of which sees every conflict as Vietnam, and opposes virtually any military action anywhere.

But the president does have to worry about everyone else.  He called Afghanistan a correct war during his campaign, and he's poured resources into the struggle.  This is now his war - there's a limit to what he can blame on Bush - and he's got to produce something far more specific and convincing than he has during the health care debate.

August 6, 2009