Joan Walsh on Obama's Speech "Yes, it's Obama's war now"

Joan Walsh wrote on salon.com an article about Obama's Afghanistan speech. While she may have made some interesting points I felt she missed a central issue: How should the Left (peace movement) react? What can be done to stop the madness in Afghanistan? I made a few recommendations (see below).

Joan Walsch on Obama's Speech "Yes, it's Obama's war now"
An uninspiring speech sells a dubious policy, but progressives who feel betrayed have only themselves to blame
I may be the only person in the United States who was trying to wait for President Obama's Afghanistan speech to make up my mind about his war plans. Of course, I mostly failed at that. Sure, all of Obama's options are bad, but still, few decisions seem as clear-cut as this one. Escalation is hard to see as an exit strategy. Obama has no clear path to "victory." We are likely to waste more lives than we save. I thought that was true before Obama's big speech, and I still think it now, afterwards.
read the rest of her article here...

Reactions from the Left
I'm afraid I'm missing something in your article. You ask towards the end, "What's an Obama supporter to do?". Your answer was only to comment that Obama is just fulfilling his campaign promise and then you go on to complain about Dick Cheney.
If we on the left want to develop an anti-war strategy we must go way beyond that. Anyways, we all know that Obama promised to escalate in Afghanistan and we all know that Cheney is a disaster.
Here's then my answer to what the left needs to do:
1. Report on the war atrocities in Afghanistan: From civilian deaths, to destruction of infrastructure, to the craziness of invading a sovereign nation.
2. Report on the Karzai Government: The Karzai government is a form of legitimization of the US/NATO presence in Afghanistan. The West says Karzai wants us there, so we stay. Who is this guy, where does he come from, what is his government about. If the public were better informed about the total corruption and the total lack of internal political legitimization for Karzai, they might rethink their support of the War. Keep reminding people that Karzai's brother is the biggest Opium dealer in the country. Before the war less than 10% of global opium came from Afghanistan. Now it's over 80%. Is the US in Afghanistan in order to help it become the world's largest opium producer?
3. Look at the history. Britain failed in Afghanistan, Russia failed. Why should the US succeed. What right does the US/NATO have anyway to invade a sovereign nation.