Whose fault is Afghanistan?

Dick Cheney accuses President Obama of "dithering" instead of doing what it takes to win the war in Afghanistan. (Watch Cheney criticize Obama) Democrats say Obama is just deliberating carefully on whether to send more U.S. troops to fix problems the Bush administration created. (Watch Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs' response) Who's to blame for insurgent gains in Afghanistan?

Cheney-Bush had their chance and failed: The former vice president is one to talk, said Howard Kurtz in The Washington Post. The man who famously promised that Americans would be welcomed as liberators in Iraq has, "shall we say, a mixed record when it comes to war." It's fair for Democrats to ask why, "if the right path in Afghanistan were clear," the Bush-Cheney "failed to find it for seven years."

"Armchair Quarterbacks"

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Obama's dithering could lose the war: Barack Obama "campaigned for two years on the promise to fight a more robust counterinsurgency strategy," said Ed Morrissey in Hot Air. Obama's own counterinsurgency specialist, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, says he needs more soldiers to win. Obama's cold feet could torpedo a winning strategy—it's "risible" for him to suggest now that "it's all Bush's fault."

"Dick Cheney rips Obama on the war"

Bush-Cheney were the real ditherers: "The Obama administration raised troop levels in Afghanistan and increased drone strikes in the region," said Adam Serwer in The American Prospect, which is a souped up version of the Bush-Cheney strategy in Afghanistan. "So Cheney is basically admitting that the Bush administration strategy was itself 'dithering.'" That's not "a strong point from which to launch criticism."

"Cheney admits to eight years of 'dithering' in Afghanistan"