Sarah Palin, Barack Obama and Afghanistan

Jessica Reaves’ somewhat one-sided article on Sarah Palin in Sunday’s Chicago Tribune includes the following quote about Governor Palin: "Oh, you’ll have to excuse her lack of understanding of NATO’s operational plan in Afghanistan. She’s a woman." I assume the quote is apocryphal, but it doesn’t matter. The point is the same, whether it is real or not.

Actually, I find all of these lack-of-experience/lack-of-interest criticisms of Governor Palin somewhat amusing. Let me explain.

A number of NATO countries have troops in Afghanistan. Some of those troops are doing a fantastic job. Other countries have put such restrictions on what their troops can do that the troops are almost useless.

This is something Congress should care about. The Subcommittee on Europe of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee could be holding hearings on NATO’s role in Afghanistan. But when the chairman of that subcommittee, Barack Obama, was asked back in February why the subcommittee had held no hearings, he said: "I became chairman of this committee at the beginning of this campaign, at the beginning of 2007. So it is true that we haven’t had oversight hearings on Afghanistan." In other words, Senator Obama was too busy running for President to hold hearings about NATO and its role in Afghanistan.

So, when it comes to Afghanistan, at least Governor Palin has an excuse; she had another job. As for Senator Obama, he just didn’t have the time.