Stumbling Through Afghanistan

The LA Times is reporting President Obama’s Afghanistrategy looks to be, contrary to the principle of change he campaigned on, the status quo;

Obama told congressional leaders Tuesday that he does not plan to dramatically reduce the American troop level or switch to a strictly counter-terrorism mission.

I appreciate Obama keeping options open, and looking at the issue from all sides;

“The president reiterated that we need this debate to be honest and dispense with the straw man argument that this is about either doubling down or leaving Afghanistan,” one senior administration official said after the meeting ended.

At least the war is getting an open-minded examination, more than the previous administration would have ever given.

Taliban officials claimed Monday they are only a threat to the West when Western nations are occupying Afghanistan. I don’t completely buy this, but the statement is useful when examining the Obama administration allowing the question “Does a return of the Taliban necessarily mean a return of Al-Qaeda?” I don’t want to sound like Hardball or The Ed Show, but the Bush administration would not have considered that line of questioning.

An increase in American troops is not what Afghanistan needs. It will lead to more casualties among our soldiers, without any increase in stability. I’m afraid more soldiers only means more targets for the enemy. We do not want that.

When Democrats Piss Me Off

Almost a month ago Sen. Russ Feingold issued a press release containing a letter to President Obama, regarding Feingold’s apprehension over the so-called “czars” in the President’s administration. I thought the letter smacked of Glenn Beck then promptly forgot about it. Until this morning when MSNBC ran a segment on Feingold and Sen. Diane Feinstein, apparently joining forces in quest to hassle the President over his advisors.

I understand the Senators concerns, part of their function in the legislative branch is to provide a check on the executive. However at this moment, lack of party unity could prove to be the undoing of health-care reform. Petty issues like this are best left to the Glenn Beck’s of the world, we have more important things to do. Come back to the “czar” issue in a year, you’ll realize its irrelevant.

President Obama is making another token gesture to the gay-rights crowd, speaking before the Human Rights Campaign this weekend. He will charm them into complacency for another few months, while he fails to make any progress (or take any action) in the realm of gay rights.

The President could overturn “Don’t ask, don’t tell” with an executive order today, making a few Republicans scramble, and temporarily forget to propagate lies about health-care reform, a win-win! At least the Justice Department is half-assing its defense of DOMA.

Finally, the public discussion of military strategy is making the President look weak. Personally, I like the information and opinions being out in the public domain, but its not doing any good for the adminstration. Leaks and top officials like McChrystal and Gates publicly speaking their opinion when it may be at odds with the decision the President makes in a week is all fodder for the right-wing talk show hosts who latch onto anything to attck the Obama administration. A team of rivals is good, all options should be explored. Just not like this.

The Future of Afghanistan: Controlled by the Taliban?

By Chris Tubbs, Veteran US Army – Contact: ctubbs8 at gmail.com

Lt. General Stanley McChrystal is demanding 40,000 more troops for Afghanistan (and leaking this request to the press) or the war there will be lost. Vice President Joe Biden is arguing within the administration (and without through press leaks) that the mission to build democracy in Afghanistan is a failure and should be changed to a more simple counter-terrorism mission. Conservative commentator George Will is making a slightly more extreme version of VP Biden’s argument. Finally we are having a REAL discussion on America’s future in Afghanistan.

During the campaign there was only a caricature of a real discussion. Republicans wanted to stay in the war because Republicans always want to stay in a war, any war, at any cost, no matter what. Democrats wanted to stay in Afghanistan because it was “the right war,” the one America was perfectly correct in starting, as opposed to “the wrong war” in Iraq. Unfortunately, this argument is no better than the Republican argument – the fact that we were within our rights to start this war has nothing to do with whether it is wise to continue said war after eight miserable years.

Despite the pressure being put on him by Lt. Gen. McChrystal and the Republicans, President Obama is taking his time to do a complete and very thorough review of the situation in Afghanistan, what the mission there should be, and how we get out. The danger here is that President Obama will do little more than “stay the course” because he is afraid of what will happen if he doesn’t. Harry Truman’s presidency was severely damaged by his supposedly “losing” China to the communists. Lyndon Johnson kept escalating the war in Vietnam largely because he did not want the same thing to happen to his presidency. The American people often have a hard time facing up to facts about the world that they do not like. Let there be no mistake here, if we switch to a counter-terrorism mission rather than the (so-far failed) nation-building mission we are pursuing now the Taliban will retake Afghanistan. President Obama has made no secret of the fact that his main concerns will be focused in the area of domestic reform. This is as it should be but if he changes the mission in Afghanistan and the Taliban retake the country his domestic reforms may be in quite a bit of trouble.

Despite this problem the President must change the mission in Afghanistan to counter-terrorism. First, the US simply does not have the troops available to get the job done. Lt. Gen. McChrystal wants 40,000 more troops but where are these troops going to come from? The vast majority of the troops in Iraq will still be needed there for some time to come. Additionally, in order to achieve Iraq-like results in Afghanistan we will need even more troops there than we used in Iraq because Afghanistan is a far more rural country. The Taliban have a perfect sanctuary in Pakistan and we have no real reason to believe that we can completely defeat them.

The American people have the mindset we are invincible so if we lose at something it must be because someone screwed up. We “lost” China because the State Department was riddled with commies. We lost in Vietnam because Democrats stabbed the country in the back just as we were on the verge of winning. It only follows that we lost in Afghanistan because Obama is a socialist weakling. This argument will weaken the President politically but so will a long drawn-out stalemate while public support for the war diminishes.

Despite the seeming indestructibility of the Taliban it might still be worth one last shot if it weren’t for Hamid Karzai. In his blatant election-rigging he has betrayed both America and the Afghan people. Apparently, he has forgotten that the only thing that stands between him and the Taliban is the US Army. If anyone on “our side” deserves a beheading it is him. The credibility of the government is the single biggest key to any successful counter-insurgency operation. President Obama knows this and it is why he is conducting the second Afghanistan review in the nine months since he took office.

Time and again the American people and their leaders have shown a great unwillingness to face up to unpleasant facts. Karzai has thrown away the already small chance there was of stabilizing Afghanistan. American forces must shift focus to a more humble mission of taking out Al-Qaeda leaders and training camps. Yes, this will mean the Taliban take Afghanistan back. We can only hope that President Obama has the guts, as his predecessors from other wars have not, to tell the American people the truth. Then maybe the American people will finally accept that America is not invincible.