Andrew Sullivan writes an insightful post about the Surge(s), ending with these options for President Barack Obama:You want empire? Then say so and get on with it -- with far more forces, and massive cuts in domestic spending to rebuild thankless Muslim population centers thousands of miles from home for decades into the future.You do not want empire? Then leave.The most pernicious trend in U.S. foreign policy -- and one that the Obama administration is in danger of falling into -- is the idea that the United States can have an imperial foreign policy without enunciating it or supplying it. When you combine a generally bad idea with an unwillingness to speak its name or even do it properly, the poor consequences are magnified. Obama's speech tomorrow night is going to be critical in determining whether the administration takes the fundamental problems underlying the Afghanistan conflict seriously. With the decision apparently made and orders already being given, tomorrow's speech is probably the last chance that administration has to offer a justification and framing that is at all different from the status quo of the last several years.
-- Tim Fernholz
