Pence summed up the good sense of most Americans by noting, "I'm someone who believes it never makes sense to tell the enemy when you're going to quit fighting in a war. ... Mr. Secretary ... what's changed in your view here? What am I missing?"
The defense secretary's response offers a glimpse into the deceptive double-think so prevalent in the Obama administration: "First of all, I have adamantly opposed deadlines; I opposed them in Iraq, and I opposed deadlines in Afghanistan." Gates continued: "But what the president has announced is the beginning of a process, not the end of a process, and it is clear that this will be a gradual process and -- as he said last night -- based on conditions on the ground. So there is no deadline for the withdrawal of American forces in Afghanistan."
The following day, in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Gates said, "July 2011 ... will be the beginning of a process -- an inflection point, if you will -- of transition for Afghan forces as they begin to assume greater responsibility for security."
Thus, a publicly announced "troop withdrawal timeline" and a "time frame for our transition to Afghan responsibility" won't tell the Taliban and al-Qaida how long they have to go to ground or hide out. According to the O-Team, July 2011 is just "the beginning of a process," an "inflection point." If that's what administration officials really believe, they aren't just trying to mislead us; they are deceiving themselves.
Finally, Mr. Obama's self-centered West Point remarks -- he referred to himself no fewer than 57 times -- also prove that he and his speechwriters don't know history, either. He claimed that Afghanistan will not become "another Vietnam" because "unlike Vietnam, we are not facing a broad-based popular insurgency." Whoever wrote those words is simply wrong.
The Republic of Vietnam wasn't lost to a "popular insurgency." By April 1969, the Viet Cong had been eliminated as a military threat. The frail, flawed democratic government in Saigon collapsed in April 1975 -- three years after the last American combat troops were withdrawn -- because in December 1974, the country was invaded and subsequently conquered by a hostile neighbor -- North Vietnam -- only after the U.S. Congress rebuffed President Gerald Ford's request for $522 million in emergency aid.
A head of state who distorts the lessons of history is a peril. A leader who tries to deceive himself and his people is dangerous. We can only pray that this commander in chief isn't committing 100,000 young Americans to a mission impossible in the shadows of the Hindu Kush.