ANOTHER PRESIDENT, ANOTHER ESCALATION?
Another White House is grappling with escalation of yet another land war in Asia, this time in Afghanistan. Army General Stanley McChyrstal favors sending in another 40,000 troops to employ the same strategy of counter-insurgency operations against the Taliban that seemed to work in Iraq, advice that is not universally shared at the Pentagon. Vice-President Joe Biden has a Plan B, scaling back operations and re-focusing the mission on counter-terrorism efforts aimed at al-Qaeda.
President Obama is now the decider-in-chief, and he seems to be taking his time with what is arguably the most important decision he will make for a long, long time. He must weigh what is possible through military action against what American public opinion will support. And before any of that is decided, he must re-examine just what it is exactly we are trying to do in Afghanistan.
If you asked me, I would start with Biden's plan and go from there. The main reason we invaded Afghanistan in the first place was to deal with al-Qaeda. Well, they are now mostly in Pakistan, so the main focus of that effort must also shift there. And in fact Pakistan seems finally ready to get serious about it. Of course, they have umpteen hidden agendas, but they are the front line in the fight against al-Qaeda, so that is where the bulk of our efforts should be directed.
Second, nobody ever has or ever will make a nation out of Afghanistan. The central government, the tribal leaders and the Taliban each have their own bases of support. Nobody is going anywhere. And nobody is saying we could ever completely defeat the Taliban, so what exactly would we do with all those extra troops?
The most we can hope for is what we got in Korea and Vietnam, a stalemate of sorts, a buying of time in hopes that things will somehow get better. In Korea, we have a very stable South and a very unstable North. In Vietnam, we have a stable government because there was a cadre of leaders who had been fighting their entire lives for a chance to build a nation. I'm still waiting to see that level of commitment in Afghanistan.
Is America willing to send yet another generation to fight in yet another land war in Asia? I hope Obama has the guts to do what no other living president has done, back off and back out, with or without declaring a great victory.
October 4, 2009
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