COMING SOON TO A SCREEN NEAR YOU - AT 6:16 P.M. ET:  The president has chosen West Point as the backdrop for his Afghanistan speech Tuesday.  From AP, via Fox:

President Obama will address the nation on his new strategy for the war in Afghanistan Tuesday night from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

At least AP got the name right.  I've been infuriated today, while checking the news channels, at the number of times it's been referred to as "the West Point Military Academy," which sounds like a training school for difficult boys.  It's the United States Military Academy.  It's proper to refer to it simply as West Point, just as the Naval Academy is called "Annapolis."  But it definitely is not the West Point Military Academy.

The president is expected to lay out his plans for expanding the Afghan conflict and, ultimately, ending America's military role.

The U.S. will not be in Afghanistan for another eight or nine years from now, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday when asked whether the Obama administration had an exit strategy.

Bad approach.  You want to achieve your objective as quickly as possible, but, when you start talking about time limits publicly, you flash a schedule to enemies, who then know how long they'll have to hold out before we leave. 

The president and his top military and national security advisers have held 10 meetings to discuss America's future steps in Afghanistan. Though the top general in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has asked the president for about 40,000 troops, military officials expect the president will deploy about 35,000, starting next year.

Why not give the general what he wants?  If it's 35,000, it looks like the president is throwing a bone to the political left, saying, in effect, "I didn't go along with McChrystal."  Silly.

The president says the American people will support his strategy once they understand the perils of losing the war.

Question:  Why wasn't that explained earlier in this administration?  Does a president wait ten months to explain why we're fighting?

We'll watch Tuesday night.  It better be good.  The president's numbers are sinking, and his indecision on Afghanistan is one of the reasons.

November 25, 2009