Peace Out

During the 2008 presidential campaign, liberal voters beheld Barack Obama and saw a man of peace. No, Obama himself never pretended to be a pacifist. But for some of his most fervent supporters, few things were more bedazzling than Obama's clearly stated opposition to the Iraq War in the autumn of 2002, and his campaign's emphasis on getting America out of that country.

 

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But Obama's presidency has hardly lifted America out of war. In Afghanistan, in fact, he has gotten America in deeper. Since taking office, Obama has ordered an additional 21,000 soldiers to Afghanistan—lifting U.S. troop levels there to nearly 70,000 by the end of this year. And there's likely more to come. The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, is reportedly preparing to ask Obama for as many as 40,000 more soldiers. And while the White House is debating its plans for Afghanistan, no one in the administration is ruling out an increase of that size.

Thus far, however, the political heat on Obama has been mild—a candle flame compared to the blowtorch of fury directed at George W. Bush's war in Iraq. Sure, Democrats in Congress have begun to ask skeptical questions. But so far their doubts have been aired cautiously, in forums like this week's Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on Afghanistan, where the committee's chairman, John Kerry, has merely raised concerns about the conflict without directly challenging his president. Notably absent are the sort of theatrical protesters who routinely disrupted Bush-era congressional hearings on Iraq. (At one 2007 hearing, a member of the infamous antiwar outfit Codepink lunged at Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with fake-blood-covered hands.) By comparison, when it comes to Afghanistan, the antiwar left has been remarkably docile. There are no mass demonstrations in the streets, no vigils outside the White House, no shrieking activists haranguing startled members of Congress in Capitol Hill hallways.

What happened to all that outrage? There are four key explanations.

1. The first is the most obvious: The partisan factor. Liberals certainly don't like seeing more Americans march off to battle. But when it comes to Obama, the old saying seems to prevail on the left: "He may be an SOB, but he's our SOB." Antiwar demonstrators were eager to shame and embarrass Bush, but many liberals would rather apply behind-the-scenes pressure on Obama. With the president fighting to pass health-care reform, stop global warming, and reform the financial system, few on the left want to make inadvertent common cause with the likes of Glenn Beck in eroding the president's political capital.