Futility, Defined
So Stanley tells Barack that without a whole lot more combat troops, and a new, improved strategy, the Afghan war is lost. Great. But what Stanley proposes falls well short of a genuinely serious all-out effort; most likely even an all-out effort would fail but it's important to recognize that it's not on the table; nor did Barack, it seems, inquire about worst contingencies. And neither of them have yet to explain the U.S. national interest in Afghanistan. No clear interest, no proven strategy, no workable tactics. Leaving us with zilch.
The smartest policy at this point would be to retrench and reduce our footprint as much as possible as quickly as possible. Abandon the Afghan government, forget the Afghan forces we've trained, negotiate with the Taliban. Obviously, however, the U.S. government is nowhere near doing anything like that. We'll have to spend a couple of trillion dollars and get seriously bloodied first. And at about that time it'll occur to the fantasists in office to begin to worry about the effect all of this has had on Pakistan. What a mess...
Posted by George Kenney on September 21, 2009 11:30 AM 
« The Goldstone Report | Main | No Favors, Please »
Comments
George, what I fail to understand here is what exactly it would mean for the U.S. to "win" in Afghanistan. I haven't heard anyone articulate a definition of victory that rises beyond the level of adolescent fantasy. Sending more Americans to die in pursuit of a goal you cannot define is totally immoral.
Posted by: Charles D
|
September 21, 2009 12:52 PM
The reason we are in Afghanistan is three-fold:
1. To convince idiot Americans that "our boys" are going after the bad terrorists that supposedly engineered 911 from a cave there.
2. To keep the armaments industry in business — and it is a very good business.
3. It is strategic to securing our looting the Mid-East energy supplies without which we have no modern civilization.
In other words, we need war.
Posted by: Sam | September 22, 2009 1:53 PM
The NYT Obama template, used about 10,000 times since 1/20/09:
"White House Pares Its Financial Reform Plan
By STEPHEN LABATON
WASHINGTON — As a senior House Democrat announced an ambitious schedule to complete legislation overhauling the nation’s financial system, the Obama administration on Wednesday abandoned a symbolically significant provision in the face of widespread political and industry
opposition."
Posted by: EJK | September 23, 2009 2:13 PM