Tony Rubolotta

Foreign Policy by Personality Disorder
September 23, 2009

Obama’s Afghanistan policy is the result of a political expediency, but may also be driven by a personality disorder. The expediency is easy enough to explain. Most Americans accept the premise that we must actively pursue, engage and destroy known terrorists, especially those with any connection to the 9/11 attacks. Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden were in Afghanistan and that was the place to go. Hence, Afghanistan became the "good war”. While this may have upset the extreme anti-war, anti-American faction that backed Obama’s candidacy, it was necessary to attract more reasonable voters.

If Obama were not the malignant narcissist that he is, and if he did not have to appease his extremist supporters, our mission in Afghanistan would be nothing more than the continuance of what it was when he took office. We have seen prior to Obama what happens when a narcissist is President and inherits a conflict. I’m referring to Bill Clinton and Somalia.

Bill Clinton inherited a murky mission in Somalia from George Bush. Other than to deliver some food, I don’t think anyone knows why we were there, and then stayed after what little could be done was done. Our misguided involvement was clearly Bush’s fault, but an opportunity for Clinton. What Bill Clinton didn’t want was an unpopular war because of American or civilian casualties. Bill "I loathe the military” Clinton also wanted his "legacy” as commander-in-chief and an easy out of Somalia. Somali warlord Aidid appeared to be Clinton’s ticket out with a newly crafted legacy. Take out Aidid and then bail out of Somalia would do the trick.

It was at Clinton’s direction that the mission was denied the assets required for a reasonable chance of success. Clinton didn’t want egg on his face if Aidid was not captured, nor did he want the press to see any indication of escalation in Somalia. Tragically, a lot of people died in pursuit of Clinton’s legacy, which he was denied in Somalia but would find later in Kosovo. Ever the opportunist, Clinton and a willing media exploded the Kosovo civil war into a world class holocaust using grossly exaggerated and manufactured evidence. That is another story but a clear indication that anything standing between a narcissist and his legacy is in peril. Clinton’s legacy was written with innocent Serbian blood and Kosovo today is a criminal haven borne of that legacy.

Obama may be more of a narcissist than Clinton and it may take more American blood to purchase his legacy while not offending his anti-war, anti-American base. The inexplicable happenings in Afghanistan now become understandable. Obama’s ticket out of Afghanistan, complete with a legacy and claim to success where Bush failed is the capture or killing of Osama bin Laden. The trick is to do it without bad press or alienating his most ardent supporters.

Consequently, our forces in Afghanistan have been placed under insane rules of engagement, placing them at extreme peril. To the main stream media, dead American soldiers are preferable to dead civilians being used as Taliban shields. His anti-war, anti-American supporters undoubtedly share this belief. The impact these rules and consequences will have on troop morale is completely predictable, but again this is acceptable to Obama and his supporters. This war cannot be won under these rules, but that doesn’t matter because capturing or killing bin Laden is the only objective.

Whether or not we capture or kill bin Laden will take a stroke of luck or the cooperation of natural forces. How Obama might take credit for bin Laden dieing in his sleep is unknown but not unthinkable. With bin Laden dead or captured, Obama can exit Afghanistan and claim victory, a legacy and superiority over Bush.

Does Obama have an exit strategy to save face? Does a narcissist have a mirror? Of course he does and perhaps more than one. In fact, one exit strategy may have been inadvertently unveiled but I wouldn’t call it dead. You may recall that Obama’s DOJ was being required to read captured Taliban combatants Miranda rights. Supposedly, that has been stopped by the Senate, but what does it portend?

The spectacle of tens, if not hundreds of combatants on trial would serve Obama’s interests very well. It would be a daily reminder for months, if not years of Obama’s successful campaign to remove terrorists from Afghanistan. The numbers that the public sees in those trials is more important than the numbers they don’t see remaining on the battlefield. Furthermore, trials take away credit from the military and give it to the DOJ prosecutors. This may not just be an exit strategy, but just the opposite where Obama can use successful show trials to justify staying in Afghanistan and continuing the pursuit of bin Laden and get out the way he planned in the first place. You can have your cake and eat it too.

Our insane policy in Afghanistan doesn’t look so crazy from the eyes of a pathological narcissist. We have the Clinton example to look to and no reason to believe one narcissist would behave that much differently than another. Clinton played a long shot and so is Obama. Playing dice with other peoples’ lives is not beyond either of them.