Charlie Brown’s Christmas Show on ABC-TV was bumped this evening for President Obama’s speech on the next steps in the Afghanistan War.  It has been re-programmed by ABC for a showing next week. Check your local TV listings for the day and time.  However, we contacted Charlie to get his feelings about being usurped by the President and here’s what he had to say:

Charlie: “Don, what do you mean by ‘usurped’, Lucy never told me about that word.”

Don: “Charlie, you know, bumped or postponed.”

Charlie: “Oh, that’s okay. I’m an American first and if this speech is important the kids can wait until next week for my Christmas – there’s still time.  But I would be interested in your take on the President’s speech.”

Don: “Well, Charlie I thought it was rather duplicitous.”

Charlie: “Whoa! ‘Duplicitous’ – that’s worse than ‘usurped’?

Don: Oh, that’s nothing more than speaking from both sides of your mouth.

Charlie: I understand that, Lucy does that to me all the time – tell me more.

Don:  “Well, there are times when this President tells us what he wants some of us to hear and some others what they want to hear, hoping that he satisfies both – but it’s not necessarily what he means.  It is often a wavering voice and message that is politically expedient, but not necessarily right.

Charlie: “That is really duplicitous!”

Don:  “Now you got it Charlie.

“A very intelligent columnist for the Washington Post, Charles Krauthammer, said ‘it was a call to war with an uncertain trumpet’.

“Allow me to explain, first of all he appeared before the cadets of West Point demonstrating a need for a charge from that battery bunny – it was not reminiscent of any war speech that Churchill might have delivered, and came up short of Bush’s Iraqi surge speech.

“He is going to send 30,000 troops into Afghanistan with a surge to defeat Al-Qaeda, but promised to pull them out in 18 months with conditions, but doesn’t explain the conditions.  You see Charlie, that’s not commitment — nor is it very smart.  He is telling the enemy his strategy, primarily to appease the left in this country first but not behaving as Commander In Chief of our Armed Forces.

“Rather duplicitous, wouldn’t you say?

Charlie: “Go on.”

Don: “Well, it was a strange speech, Charlie.  It was rather academic, in fact many of the cadets should have been falling asleep – in fact I saw one who was out of it.  Furthermore it was defensive, hedging, contrasting a troop surge with an exit strategy. During the speech there were only three breaks for applause from the cadets.

“It puts another US toe in the water of war with a lot of uncertainty, but Obama made it clear the age of the blank check is over – but for political reasons.

“I guess I don’t get it Charlie, he is accelerating the infiltration of Afghanistan with 30,000 troops with exit ramps eventually leaving the Afghans naked?  I somehow get the feeling that there are too many needles being threaded and they are not making Afghans – you know a blanket that keeps you warm.

“Charlie, Obama delivered a tired  aspirational speech rather than a resolutionary one fighting a war in a territory that is no walk in the park for our troops.”

Charlie: “Don, you know I worked with a very wise man, Charles Schulz, who created me and my character and what comes to mind at this point is one of the famous quotes he put into my mouth, “Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, ‘Where have I gone wrong?’ Then a voice says to me, ‘This is going to take more than one night.’”