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Now, welcome to the best of the left podcast with clips today from CounterSpend, The Progressive, The Onion Radio News, The Rachel Maddo Show, The Daily Show, Ring of Fire, The Young Turks, and The Colbert Report.

With virtually every poll showing the American public opposed to escalating the war in Afghanistan, prominent pundits and journalists have responded by chastising the White House for taking too long to send more troops.

Huh? On ABC, Anchor Charles Gibson wondered why Obama was still posing questions.

Quote, what new questions are there to be asked after all this time?

Pentagon correspondent Martha Raditz replied, well, you would think he'd be through with the questions, Charlie.

A Los Angeles Times column headlined Obama must rethink, rethinking Afghanistan, told us that Obama, quote, is in danger of giving deliberation a bad name.

Over at the Washington Post, David Broder actually wrote that since there is no perfect option in Afghanistan, quote, the urgent necessity is to make a decision, whether or not it is right.

Quote's quote, that sounds an awful lot like Glenn Beck's declaration, believe in something, even if it's wrong, believe in it.

So where does all of this come from?

Well, it's a given that centrist pundits are generally excited to cheer on US military aggression.

But there are some slight cracks in the conventional wisdom on Afghanistan, and that seems to have some media figures worried.

The pushback against the White House's Afghanistan decision then might not be about the speed with which the decision is made, the real problem is the public.

Who seem less troubled by the White House holding too many meetings about the war, then they are about the wisdom of the war as a whole.

Why leave your shoulders back underneath this burden when my back is still here and strong?

Tuber when you speak to me, don't you sleep me? The calm I feel means a storm is still here.

Why don't you speak to me? There's no tellin' where it's now, how it ends.

Speak to me, why are you there in the specific war? Did it find me? Speak to me, when your silence is my biggest fear.

I'm Matt Rothschild, the editor of the Progressive Magazine with my progressive point of view, which you can also grab off our website over at Progressive.org.

If you closed your eyes during much of the present speech on Afghanistan and just listen to the words, you easily could have concluded that George W. Bush was still in the Oval Office, or at the very least, that Obama had stolen his speech writers.

Because like Bush, Obama had barely cleared his throat when I came the first mention of September 11th, along with the Bushian line, we did not ask for this fight.

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