Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy once said, “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.”Well, critics of President Obama say that by taking too much time out to plan the next phase of the war in Afghanistan, he is allowing Al-Qaeda and the Taliban to entrench themselves.To be clear, the longer the war drags on, the more these groups strengthen.Yet the president’s deliberations beg an important question. If President Bush had taken the time needed and the planning required for modern warfare, would American troops still be fighting in Iraq years after President Bush declared “Mission Accomplished?”To those on the right, Mr. Obama’s cautious deliberations seem to be either a sign of weakness or a political ploy. Meanwhile, the war hawks in Congress rage about his indecision and how it hurts the troops.Interestingly enough, it seems these same congressmen have short memories.Mr. Obama has already deployed an additional 13,000 troops to Afghanistan since taking office.Last week, the same man that was apparently politicking with the troops’ lives took a late-night visit to the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where the country’s casualties of war return home in flag-draped coffins, a move Mr. Bush failed to do in his eight years as president.This visit exemplifies Mr. Obama’s decision-making process. The president, it seems, explores all the options available to him and makes an informed decision from there.To his allies on the left, the process sometimes seems like he is apprehensive or lacking backbone.In his candidacy, so many of his supporters projected their hopes onto him, seeing him through a veil of their own dreams and great expectations.Yet once Obama ascended to the presidency and these dreams weren’t immediately fulfilled, people began to lose the passion he inspired in them.This passion around his candidacy blinded supporters from seeing how this former constitutional law professor deliberates.Sometimes this decision-making process is arduous — for an example, see health care reform.Yet when one’s job goals include leading the country through two wars, expanding health insurance to millions of uninsured and ending the Great Recession, even everyday decisions should not be taken lightly.After all this, his critics still accuse him of failing to lead.If your idea of leadership is (literally) shoot first, ask questions later, then by all means President Obama is a massive failure.If you count yourself as one who would prefer a more thought-out approach to governance, then this is where the president excels.Count former Vice President Cheney among the former group, along with his daughter Liz Cheney. During a speech to a conservative national security group in October, Mr. Cheney said, “The White House must stop dithering while America’s armed forces are in danger.”Funny how even when the former vice president shot someone on a hunting trip, the American people rarely saw the man at any sort of public events save the annual State of the Union; however, now that Cheney has left office, he and his daughter are all over cable news.Unlike his predecessor, President Obama feels it is his constitutional duty to make sure he will never blindly send American troops into harm’s way without the full realization of the consequences on the troops themselves, American citizens and the citizens of the foreign country being affected.Despite the tantrums on the right, maybe President Obama is leading by a different Tolstoy quote: “The vocation of every man and woman is to serve other people”— a quote those in the Bush Administration failed to understand.Stephen Schmitz is a 19-year-old mass communication sophomore from The Woodlands, Texas. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_sschmitz.—-Contact Stephen Schmitz at [email protected]