WHAT UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN FOOTBALL FANS CAN LEARN FROM CHARLIE WEIS' FIRING DEPT:
So a big reason Weis was fired was because, though he certainly developed ND's offense through his recruiting, he never fixed his team's defense. Indeed, he never came close to fixing it. Meanwhile, at Michigan, what's been the biggest problem with Rich Rodriguez's tenure so far? His team's defense. And that his recruiting has continued to center on offense, despite his team's inability to stop people. Be careful, Rich. Learn from what happened to your comrade Charlie down the road...
THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION AND AFGHANISTAN DEPT:
The administration today makes a huge mistake, assuming this report is true:
"President Barack Obama plans to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan over six months, an accelerated timetable — with an endgame built in — that would have the first Marines there as early as Christmas, a senior administration official told The Associated Press. U.S. troops are expected to start leaving the region "well before" the end of Obama's first term, the AP reported Tuesday. A senior government official told NBC contributor Col. Jack Jacobs that the president believes that a transition from American-led combat to Afghan leadership of the effort will begin in July 2011."
Great! Gosh, why didn't the Administration simply send the Taliban and other terrorists in Afghanistan a memo, telling them all they need do is hunker down, wait this thing out, wait for the Americans to leave--which they've now announced they'll do, and they've said when--and then renew their attacks? Leaking this kind of stuff and, more importantly, engaging in this kind of "strategy" is a sure recipe for defeat. Obama needs to seek victory in Afghanistan and elsewhere, not burden his strategy with concessions to the American antiwar left.
Although it also amuses that Rich Lowry is right as well today when he notes that, well, at least the president is ordering in a "surge" of troops---and you know what that makes him:
"Prepare for the advent of Barack Obama, neocon. On the Afghan War, he is throwing in with the lying, warmongering running dogs of neoconservatism by ordering a surge of some 30,000 troops.Obama has to become a president of victory even though he hails from a party of defeat. The responsibilities of office separate him from a political base that only sounded stalwart on the Afghan War so long as it was a handy political tool with which to beat George W. Bush about the head and shoulders."
