Obama has a completely free hand in Afghanistan and Iraq. I doubt that any president since LBJ in 1964-65 has had such a free hand. The so-called Republican Obama haters will give him everything he asks for wheil the so-called antiwar worshipers on the left will do the same. The only way that Obama will be stopped is if conservatives turn against his escalation but they will continue to be his best friends on these issues.
Actually, and maybe I’m nitpicking, but I’d say Nixon had a freer hand than LBJ did. LBJ escalated the war and watched it go sour as well as the American people hating him. Nixon came in promising to end the war with honor. It’s very similar to Bush-Obama I believe, possibly with Pakistan playing the role of Laos and Cambodia.