Boxed In

Ross Douthat unfortunately makes a very good point about Obama having boxed himself in on Afghanistan (see excerpt below). Yet he also acknowledges that the options are horrible and that Obama risks failure unless he becomes a completely convinced that he has to fight this war all-out and brings as much of the country with him as possible. Douthat thinks this is unlikely. No wonder this decision is being seen as pivotal to Obama's presidency.

I heard a similar theme, in public and private, from many counterinsurgency
advocates last week. Having recently described Afghanistan as a “war of
necessity,” they asked, can the president really turn down a request for more
troops from a general he himself appointed to support a campaign that he
personally endorsed?

The answer is very likely no. However serious his doubts about
escalation, Obama seems boxed in — by the thoroughness of McChrystal’s
assessment and the military’s united front, by his own arguments across the last
two years and by his party’s long-running insistence on painting Afghanistan as
the neglected “good war.”