American Exceptionalism

[Eli Lake]

Brendan,

I am not so interested in claiming vindication for one ideology or another. But if Obama was embracing the dictates of the netleft, then he would have likely appointed a national security team that reflected their values. As it stands, he appointed the defense secretary who defended the surge to Congress, his main primary opponent who once boasted that America could obliterate Iran, and a former Marine Commandant who warned Congress against setting an arbitrary deadline for withdrawing from Iraq. His attorney general defended the Bush administration's notion of enemy combatants after 9-11. Obama himself has thoroughly caveated his 16 month pledge, and I think if you read between the lines he is now referring to "combat troops" a different species than the soldiers who will remain in Iraq.

Eli