George Will, who is the very embodiment of establishment conservatism writes in today’s Washington Post that the United States should revise it strategy in Afghanistan and rather than fight the war from inside the country fight the war from outside of Afghanistan. Will points out,
The U.S. strategy is “clear, hold and build.” Clear? Taliban forces can evaporate and then return, confident that U.S. forces will forever be too few to hold gains. Hence nation-building would be impossible even if we knew how, and even if Afghanistan were not the second-worst place to try: The Brookings Institution ranks Somalia as the only nation with a weaker state.
Time to look at it with a long-term view. Is it in America’s interest to be there? Does anyone truly think that a tribal and Islamic religious based culture is going to pull its collective act together, embrace democracy and flower into an oasis of stability? Ain’t gonna happen. Unless we are willing to devote lots more troops and be willing to occupy the place for generations we need to provide what stability we can and begin withdrawing. Keep an eye on them from afar and be prepared to deliver a long-range smack if needed. Iraq is already starting to crack as we withdraw and the Iraqi’s are already choosing sides.
So basically the argument is “Muslims/Arabs are too backward to ever get their act together so why bother trying to help them do so?”
That’s weak, and quite insulting.
The current strategy certainly isn’t optimal. However if your strategy doesn’t work you don’t just give up and take the ball home. You work out how to fix it.
What was it Patton said? “America loves a winner.” It sure doesn’t seem that way these days.
Our enemy chose this battlefield. They chose well. We can’t just walk away from the fight as they will follow us home. And the idea of using standoff power to keep them in line seems like a fantasy to me. Once they can freely position themselves, they will integrate their facilities among the population in a way they aren’t able to now. So we will be faced with an impolitic amount of collateral damage should we need to strike a particular target.
I have supported this war since day one, and I continue to support it as I see no real alternative. Which is not to say better tactics can’t be developed.
Please try to remember what it was like to live in Afghanistan under Taliban control. Women were treated like animals. People were publicly executed in Kabul’s soccer stadium. Ancient archaeological sites were destroyed and the people lived in fear.
Afghanistan, much like Fallujah, became a training ground and haven for the scum of the earth.
Citizens of the free world cannot let this happen again. America and responsible nations need to make the long-term commitment to bring law and order – peace and stability to the people of Afghanistan.
Freedom never has been and never will be free. We cannot walk away.
I am certainly no expert here, just a retired enlisted weapons mech.
But it looks to me like this is a NATO/European problem. It seems to me we are fighting with our hands tied. While Europe balks at getting into this full force. After all this affects Europe more than us. I know that they do have some troops there but their numbers should be 10X what they are now.
I totaly agree that we cannot allow Afghanistan to revert back to it’s Taliban heyday.
My 2 cents from latitude 60N. Afghanistan was an ideal base for islamic thugs to set up shop and training for terrorists. Bring some money and buy off some tribal leaders, or Taliban. Afghanistan is a symptom of the bigger problem, which is next door in Pakistan and the frontier areas. That is where the disease emanates from. How are we going to deal with that? It is not an academic question.
Then you have Iran. What happens when they get a nuclear umbrella. It will become a very large game of chicken.
Our goals should be to deny the enemy a base for training and recruiting, and to make the price of doing so high enough that they will not do it.
At present, I do not see a big picture strategy. Our so-called leaders are making the same mistakes as previous leaders did in approaching Viet Nam. And our troops pay for this lack of vision.
Taking on the war was an option; leaving early isn’t.
This was the optional war–Iraq always was the center of gravity, despite the President’s campaign protestations. Yet we’re in it now, and superpowers can’t be beat by rogues.
Mustang hits this bullseye. Its time for Europe to man up. (Perhaps Will is trying reverse psychology with the President and the Washington elite; if conservatives back out of the fight, mayhaps libs will take it up just to be cantankerous?)
We need the Obama who was adored by the crowds in Germany last summer. We need the post-partisan, post-US-hegemony, world-loving President to put his magic tongue to real use. We need our CINC to bring Europe into the fight.
This isn’t about training camps for shoe bombers. Its about smashing out an ideology that threatens our European friends far more than it threatens us. We’re but at risk of the odd detonation plot getting past our intel. Europe is at systemic risk of this ideology taking root across the breadth of their cities, amongst the throngs, eating its way into their laws and customs.
George, you might want to break out your copies of Walid Phares’ works.
Pakistan finally seems to be waking up. Now is exactly the wrong time for the US to back off.
If we do leave we will only have to go back.
If we leave we will only have to go back.