Is Sarah Palin Really 'Politicizing' the Afghan War?

By Mark Whittington | Yahoo! Contributor Network1 hr 14 mins ago

COMMENTARY | A lot of the reason Sarah Palin is the most powerful female politician on the planet is her uncanny ability to get people to react to the least thing she has to say. That even includes things she didn't say, according to Real Clear Politics.

President Barack Obama's spokesman, Jay Carney, suggested Palin had "politicized" the war in Afghanistan. He could not name any specific case in which she has done so.

Like every public figure, Palin has had a few things to say about Afghanistan, as well as a number of other issues, from time to time. In February, she opined the Afghan Army ought to apologize for a rash of murders of American service personnel by Afghan troops, according to Townhall. She noted President Obama had apologized for an inadvertent burning of a Quran that had been desecrated by Taliban prisoners, thus sparking the murder rampage.

It should be noted candidate Obama in 2008 was a frequent critic of President George W. Bush's Afghan policy, as he did in a speech delivered in July of that year when he accused his predecessor of being lax in pursuing Osama bin Laden, among other things! , according to the New York Times. It was not politicizing the war in Afghanistan for a presidential candidate during an election year to slam military policy in an ongoing war.

Palin, on the other hand, could be forgiven if she were more loquacious about President Obama's Afghan War policy. Her oldest son Track, a new husband and father, has been called up and deployed to serve a tour in that country, according to the Palin Information Blog. Track Palin has previously served in Iraq as a soldier in the Army.

Palin therefore has a slightly more personal stake in what goes on in Afghanistan, that source of trouble for great powers since the time of Alexander the Great, than do most people. It could be said, without fear of contradiction, that she has the absolute moral authority of a mom to say what she likes about how the war is being managed.

Is the Obama policy needlessly endangering American troops in Afghanistan? Will that policy result in something resembling victory? What would victory look like? These and other questions need asking and answers need giving. If that is "politicization," then let the most be made of it.

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