The Afghanistan Paradox
This war has come to be inexorably linked to this President. He likes to say that he's “taking the fight” to the terrorists because it's “fundamental to the defense of our people.” His strong supporters include Karl Rove, John McCain and Sarah Palin. In Congress, Democratic leaders grate at the idea of granting him more troops and demand timelines for withdrawal of the troops already there. If you're guessed the war is in Iraq and the President is George W. Bush, you're wrong. This is the political landscape President Barack Obama now faces on the war in Afghanistan.
When Obama decided to send more troops into Afghanistan there were two schools of thought within the White House, according to Stephen Biddle, a senior fellow for defense policy at the Council on Foreign Relations who recently returned from a fact finding mission in Afghanistan at McChrystal's invitation. One side, led by Vice President Joe Biden, supported remote strikes by drones to keep al Qaeda's head down; a second group wanted to launch a counterinsurgency in Afghanistan and engage in nation building. Obama, who often said on the campaign trail that there is no simple military solution for Afghanistan – that diplomacy and NGOs and the private sector must all be engaged – not unsurprisingly chose the latter.
Therefore, the surge of 21,000 troops was meant to follow the model in Iraq – training Afghan security forces to police their own streets and converting over low- to mid-level insurgents. But, in order for a surge-like strategy to work as it did in Iraq, there must be a push for good governance coupled with the training of security forces. Applying good governance in a place as overtly corrupt as Kabul is a much bigger challenge than it was in Baghdad in no small part due to the deteriorating relationship with Hamid Karzai. “You don't need to eliminate corruption. You don't need to cashier every power broker associated with the Afghan government,” Biddle told reporters on a conference call. “You need to make visible, demonstrable progress somewhere in some key area to prove that you know how and to prove that the means at our disposal are sufficient to make a difference and to move the situation. If you can't do that, I don't think we'll be able to persuade key audiences in the United States and the clock will run out.”
Rome fought nearly constant wars at its peak, though its denizens didn't mind the casualties so much because they came with plundered treasures (and most of the casualties weren't actually Roman). Even Bush's war in Iraq had the, at least perceived, side benefit of oil. But 9/11 has become a distant memory in voters' minds and the war in Afghanistan feels more like a humanitarian mission than a war of necessity – a luxury we can ill afford. If Obama chooses to double down, he'll have to crystallize his case for waging war, and losing American lives there, before it becomes an albatross for Democrats the way Iraq brought Bush and the Republicans down. After all, said presidential historian Brian Balogh at the University of Virginia, Obama would do well to remember, “It was not Republicans who brought down Lyndon Johnson on Vietnam, it was his own party.”
-
1
This is getting more and more fun each day! Watching the "Community Organizer" - in Cheif transition to a real Commander-in-Cheif.
.
I suspect that his gutting of the CIA will play a profound role in his success or failure. My money is bet on his complete failure, especially when the Progressives rips him open for not going it their way. "Cut and run".
.
Afghanistan in the past has defeated many men in their pursuits to conquest this God forsaken place. If Obama believes he will truly once and for all get a grip on that place, he is sadly mistaken.-
1.1
" .. This is getting more and more fun each day! .."
He watches from nthe sidelines in amusement.
Hey! Rusty can do a better job of this C-in-C thing. Step aside.
-
-
2
Obama's political difficulty here will depend largely on how the media reports the situation in Afghanistan. This is clearly a war that Bush bungled. Obama's trying to make up for 8 years of mismanagement. Drawing down Iraq is part of the strategy. Absent our divided attention, Afghanistan would have been finished years ago.
Afghanistan isn't Obama's war. Fixing it is his problem. I do think he's making a mistake. I'm all for saving some cash and pulling back from Iraq and Afghanistan.
-
3
You'll take offense to this, Jay, but Joe wrote most of this better, earlier.
This war has come to be inexorably linked to this President.
By whom? You?
How many years has there been a 'war' in Afghanistan? How long has Obama been president?
If Obama chooses to double down..
Will he be 'inexorably linked to Afghanistan' then, or is it already too late, as you stated in the beginning of your post? Can you clarify?
Obama would do well to remember..
That Afghanistan is not Vietnam or even Iraq. So would you, Jay.
-
4
Trudy Rubin had an excellent column related to this in Sunday's Phila Inquirer
-
5
Jay Newton-Small:
.
Excellent piece.
.
I could point out some particular...actually, I don't think that's necessary.
.
Thanks so much for this fine work.-
5.1
SZ?
Is that you - and you have a nice word for JNS?
No it can't be!
What did the aliens do with the real SZ?
[Or is JNS holding SZ by the ... eh, squeezing SZ hard where it hurts ... ] -
5.2
OK.
Next, SZ will show some respect for AS ...
Hey, never say never! -
5.3
cfukara:
What did the aliens do with the real SZ?
Apparently all of this time I've been an alias for lawyermommy's arch-nemesis "Eve Sharon Moore":
I indicated on an earlier post that I frequently comment on “Swampland”. It is a political blog owned and run by Time magazine. This woman, “Eve Sharon Moore” has assumed so many personalities on that site in a desperate bid to create a presence in an attempt to thwart the scrutiny of her activities–which I frequently discuss on that site. Her aliases include stuartszechman, Piratewench, 53_3, Nathan777, Rusty etc etc. It is an incredibly long list of aliases created out of sheer desperation. There is no rest for criminals.
along with many other commenters, as she indicates in her latest posts up at the Justice League of America's site:
.
http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:lktJcLMBRq0J:theblindspotsofgod.wordpress.com/+stuartzechman+swampland&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
-
-
6
Rome fought nearly constant wars at its peak, though its denizens didn't mind the casualties so much because they came with plundered treasures (and most of the casualties weren't actually Roman).
.
When in the roughly 2000 year history of Rome (753 BC to 1453 AD) do you consider to have been its peak? Which wars are you referring to? What casualties were incurred (specific numbers please) and how much treasure was plundered? Also, when you refer to denizens, could you explain how you concluded that they "didn't mind the casualties"? Or was this just a vague recollection of something Hannity said he thought Malkin talked about with Limbaugh during a teabagging session?
.
Speaking as a historian, I would point out that the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth century AD, and much of the blame for this has been placed, by historians, on a constant cycle of wars, especially civil wars, loss of revenue due to loss of territory, and an elite that increasingly looked to its narrow, sectional interests, rather than considering the public good.-
6.1
" ..Speaking as a historian, .."
As such you know well that there are interpretations of historical happenings - depending on who tells the story.
What would be our view of WW2 had Hitler been victorious ...
[Which reminds me: The other side wantonly kills civilians in Araq with human bomb carriers detonating bombs. We condemn them as cowards.
Yet we do likewise.
We, the invaders, kill even more civilians in Iraq - with manned aircraft carriers that drop bombs on the heads of unwary cave dwellers and unmanned drones that srafe huts in which children sleep and their mothers cower in terror.
And we retain hired killers of various hues and persuasion practising in the field on live targets.History - written by us - stands to note that those on the other side are the villains, the terrorists ... .. ]
-
6.2
cfuk, I realize you don't usually read other people's comments, much less think through your responses, but this is not a matter of "interpretation". What is missing in the vacuous comments JNS offers on Rome are cold, hard facts. I want to believe that you would like facts to enter our discussion of matters at some point, but I find this belief increasingly hard to sustain when I read your latest bloviation.
-
-
7
Afghanistan is Obama's war, when he was running for president the knew we had troops in Afghanistan. If he didn't want to face problems in Afghanistan he shouldn't have ran for president. People act like this Afghanistan war was a surprise to Obama. They act like Obama had no idea of the conflict in Afghanistan, and try to add clarity by throwing Bush role in. Obama was a Senator, if he was a good Senator he would have been on top of the information about Afghanistan. During the election our MSM media refused to ask Obama any questions about Iraq and Afghanistan. They gave him a free ride on war issues. We were fighting two wars and no reporter dared to ask him his plans in detail. Because of that we have what you see now, Obama lost, keep silent, depend on MSM to continue to blame this on Bush. And Obama avoid this by moving his Healthcare chess queen to divert war issues. Last week Osama Bin Laden even calls Obama ‘Powerless'. The world sees the inexperienced leader for what he is....inexperienced.
-
8
“The momentum of Asia's economic development is already generating massive pressures for the exploration and exploitation of new sources of energy and the Central Asian region and the Caspian Sea basin are known to contain reserves of natural gas and oil that dwarf those of Kuwait, the Gulf of Mexico, or the North Sea.” - Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard, 1997
http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/the-ones-who-attacked-us/
-
9
How many "boots on the ground" will it take to "clear and hold" this pipeline corridor?
http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/the-gas-must-flow/
- jnsmall Tonight I finished off the last of the turkey leftovers. As good as it was, I'll happily not eat turkey again for at least a month - 2 hours ago
- jnsmall Obama: Kaar-ah-chi. He's really hitting the native pronunciations. I dunno if this is 2 contrast w/ Bush (I-rahn) or 2 show he's worldly - 4 hours ago
- jnsmall Something about the way Obama says Taliban reminds me of lollipop. - 4 hours ago
Most Popular »
- Piling On Desirée Rogers--Is The Social Secretary To Blame For Two Ticketless Boobs At The White House?
- Through The 2008 Campaign Looking Glass--John McCain on Medicare Cuts, Now And Then
- Is Walking Away from Your Mortgage the Smartest Thing You Can Do?
- It's a Deal: 25 Days of Free MP3 Holiday Song Downloads
- Health Bill: What Would It Cost Me?
- Five Things The President Will Say Tonight About Afghanistan
- State Dinner, Uh, Fashion
- Video: Touring Tim Burton's Freaky MoMA Exhibit
- On Civility
- The Six Greatest Fantasy Novels of All Time
- Want to Boost Your Memory? Sounds During Sleep Can Help
- Helicopter Parents: The Backlash Against Overparenting
- Tiger Woods Car Crash Bad Publicity for Rich Isleworth
- The End of the 2000s: Goodbye to a Decade from Hell
- Dubai's Woes a Blow to Ambitious Ruler Sheik Mohammed
- Italian Town Dreams of a White (No Foreigners) Christmas
- The Muppets Perform 'Bohemian Rhapsody'
- The Women of Islam
- Could White House Party Crashers the Salahis Go to Jail?
- Study: Loneliness Can Be Contagious
Quotes of the Day »
RSS