I'm not entirely sure how comfortable I am with this, but Ann Coulter and I are on the same page:
At this point, Afghanistan is every bit as much Obama's war as Vietnam was Lyndon Johnson's war. True, President Kennedy was the first to send troops to Vietnam. We had 16,000 troops in Vietnam when JFK was assassinated. Within four years, LBJ had sent 400,000 troops there.
In the entire seven-year course of the Afghanistan war under Bush, from October 2001 to January 2009, 625 American soldiers were killed. In 18 short months, Obama has nearly doubled that number to 1,124 Americans killed.
Republicans used to think seriously about deploying the military. President Eisenhower sent aid to South Vietnam, but said he could not "conceive of a greater tragedy" for America than getting heavily involved there. As Michael Steele correctly noted, every great power that's tried to stage an all-out war in Afghanistan has gotten its ass handed to it. Everyone knows it's not worth the trouble and resources to take a nation of rocks and brigands...But now I hear it is the official policy of the Republican Party to be for all wars, irrespective of our national interest...
I thought the irreducible requirements of Republicanism were being for life, small government and a strong national defense, but I guess permanent war is on the platter now, too.
Maybe conservatism can make a comeback in the GOP after all - against Obama's insane notion of committing 100,000 troops to fight 500 terrorists (many of whom were recruited to fight the invaders). And, of course, in a fight between Palin and Coulter, only one can make an actual argument.