Obama, Prince of Denmark.

Obama's long decision making process regarding Afghanistan is increasingly indicative of a flaccid, but reasonably intelligent man, stuck between his compulsion to protect himself via his assumed intelligence and the countervailing need to take action as a leader. He's an ex-college lecturer who became a President who acts like a college lecturer. Whether this is true or not - it seems that way, and in all things Presidential, perception is a large chunk of reality.

At this point, there are few excuses for the length of this decision process that wash. It's nearly November. Over 2 months since his hand picked General made his recommendation. A recommendation he certainly knew was coming. How is it that a policy or, at the very least, solid policy objectives, have not been formulated and acted on by now? One is left wondering what ether is filling this very public vacuum.

-He's stalling because he knows something we do not that will change the situation.

-He's preoccupied. (But with what? What's more important?)

-He finds coming to a conclusion unbearable as he knows the result - whatever it is - will be his doing.

Hamlet is, of course, the Western cannon's great tragedy about indecision. The Danish prince does not trust his instincts or intellect, and spends five astounding acts unraveling himself before our eyes. The character of Hamlet - who represents a nation - equivocates for so long that by the end of the play he, his mother, step father, and a friend are dead on stage and with his last breath he's ceded Denmark to Norway.

Obama looks increasingly like Hamlet. (Though he does not contain Hamlet's dimensionality as a person. Hamlet is enormous in human scope. No ONE can be like Hamlet as everyone, finally, is Hamlet. The good news is most of us are not Presidents.) The longer he dithers the greater the chance outside events will harm our goals in Afghanistan - whatever they are now. Iran and Israel are on a collision course. Pakistan is teetering. The world knowing where America stands on the Afghanistan can't solve everything. But clarity and decisiveness changes outcomes. The goal isn't to avoid decisions. The goal is to make decisions in a timely and wise manner. The indecisive inherit the wind.