Undiplomatic or Strategic?

Thank you for, once again, pointing out what should be so obvious -- this is an exceedingly complex policy, as well as an even more complex policy roll out. Really, those who insist on criticizing simply for crticism's sake should concentrate on the "bowing" issue.

How can you take a more or less, lawless country which has been controlled for hundreds if not thousands of years and instantly create a country of rules and laws?
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You have a base population that is illiterate. Uneducated, and controlled by local war lords who are dependent on illegal activities as the means for their money and support.
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Are we naive to think this is going to change in 10 years? Even a 100 years?
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I see no outcome in all of this which will make any changes to Afghanistan that will give us anymore security for our own country. Increasing the troops in my mind simply increases our costs and lives lost. I believe the best approach is the Biden choice of pulling out all troops, and containing whomever is in control from spreading their ill-will outside of the borders of Afghanistan.
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Pressuring the Pakistani's to control their border with Afghanistan, and not allow the Taliban to take control of that country either.
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I believe Obama would be wise to simply say enough is enough. Pull out the troops, and concentrate on securing our own borders for a change. I think this is what the majority of Americans would also agree with. Plus if we pull out, Osama Bin Laden may think he is now safe and come out into the open for a drone to fall on his head.

"It's not his fault that the cables were leaked."

And you know this to be fact how? Or is this more JK folk wisdom?

Isn't it amazing how complex these issues become to liberals after criticizing Bush for 8 years. It seems the left had all the answers back then. In reality, Obama continues to vote present while morale spirals downward among our troops.

It is a tad ironic that the U.S. criticizes the Karzai government for its corruption while a story breaks in The New York Times detailing how Republicans and Democrats in the House read verbatim transcripts of Genetech (big pharma) lobbyist talking points into the Congressional record.

Why are we bothering in Afghanistan? The country has been ungovernable since the British created it and we are not likely to change that. It is a basically a series of fiefdoms, dominated by local warlords, drug runners, religious zealots and lackeys of various stripes.

I hope Obama does the wise thing and gets us out of the middle of what is a no-win situation. While conservatives want to beat their chests and shout about troop morale and "winning the war," they know better. This is not a "winnable war." It;'s a decades long civil war for local control.

The best thing we could do for troop morale is to deny the Bush era bogus claim that we are "spreading democracy" and bring our troops home.

Maybe this Afghan MP doesn't "understand the complexities of the policy rollout", Mr. Klein:

http://www.mantlethought.org/content/voice-crying-afghanistan

"In Afghanistan every day we are mourning civilian casualties as a result of the U.S./NATO bombardments and the use of illegal massive weapons. In my own hometown, over 150 civilians, many of them women and children, were brutally killed when U.S. warplanes dropped 2000-pound bombs on two villages. Dropping thousands of cluster bombs and use of depleted-uranium and white phosphorus in bombs rained on Afghanistan have caused terrible environmental and health problems in my country.

The people of the United States should know that the people of Afghanistan want peace, liberation and democracy, but the current occupation is exactly against these values and has doubled our miseries and problems. We have come to the point that achieving these values is the sole responsibility of our people and its democratic-minded forces, those who claim to donate these values will only push us towered slavery.

I believe that the U.S./NATO governments in Afghanistan and wastes the tax-payers money in the wrong way. The money they are spending and the lives they are sacrificing is not for our poor people, but rather it adds to their miseries. So you should continue to put pressure on your government to pull out of Afghanistan.

People of the United States and the world should know that their troops are not in Afghanistan with gifts of freedom and democracy, but to nourish and support a bunch of criminal rulers—they are simply wasting their blood and money.

Afghan people have found by experience in the past few years that the West once used us in its chess game during the Cold War, which cost us over two million lives and completely destroyed Afghanistan's infrastructure. Now they are trying to use us in another such power struggle against its rising rivals in Asia. Therefore, we say no to this occupation and want all the troops to withdraw Afghanistan as soon as possible.

The anti-occupation sentiments are very high among our people today. There have been many anti-U.S./NATO protests in every corner of Afghanistan, and if these troops did not pull out voluntarily, soon they will face greater resistance from our people. Terrorist groups such as the Taliban and Al-Qaeda may get the most of out of these mass protests."

http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/the-gas-must-flow/

he last of the brigades that McChrystal has apparently requested would not arrive in Afghanistan until 2011.

Query: Will our troops still be fighting in Afghanistan in 2018 when the first generation of post-9/11 Americans becomes eligible to fight?

Hard to believe that, 8 years after 9/11, we are planning to rotate troops into Afghanistan 10 years after the attacks in order to, ostensibly, being those who attacked us to justice.

Back to the original point of the blog post, I agree with Klein's take on the Dobbins article which I found to be contradictory and confusing. The point of the Viet Nam anecdote was lost on me. Appealing for unity of thought and purpose made me think of the insane unity prior to the Iraq invasion.

To draw on Klein's earlier blog about the role of China and Russia in the Iran squirrel chase, I tend to believe that both countries are content to pursue productive economic development and let the US be distracted with pointless lost causes. It's long past the time that even a good poker player would have counted the losses and withdrawn.

Much of the blather come from the usual suspects: those who don't sit in the Situation Room, thrive on gossip and then make grand statements on the state of play. If the President wants to show real strength he should talk directly to the American people and tell them why the blood of our children, brothers and sister etc should not be spilled in this futile war. By all means help Pakistan, an established nation state. Leave Afghanistan to the warlords. We will get no thanks in the end.

Don't let the armchair generals dictate policy. Remember 5 Deferments Dick? Of course, if Dick, the Kagans and Kristol want to volunteer we can surely send them as "special forces".

As a military parent, I understand that having the policy being reviewed is bound to influence morale somewhat. Then again our troops are adults living in a democracy, and that comes with the territory.

The fault here, however, lies not with the President asking questions, and re-asking them when the answers are not satisfactory... that's his job. The fault is with the leakers who made the thing into a public process, and the pundits who have whatever axe to grind about rushing the thing rather than doing it right. Conditions there are constantly changing, and a review after the election was absolutely in order, and an obvious step to take.

If no one ever gave a good answer about how and when we get out, it was common sense to keep asking questions, rather than simply start shipping people over there, and body bags home, without even a planned end in sight.

This one is not easy and ideology is an insufficient prism through which to do it. Bad things will happen if we just leave, bad things will happen if we do too much, and bad things will happen if we do a bad job somewhere in between. It's a reverse optimization problem of figuring out the least bad at the least cost. And let us recall who got us in there in the first place... extremist ideologues, both in al Qaeda and the White House.