In a piece that is certain to stir up some controversy today, conservative heavyweight George Will questions what the hell we are still doing in Afghanistan. This follows the month with the most casualties during the 8-year war with no end in sight. From George Will:
U.S. strategy — protecting the population — is increasingly troop-intensive while Americans are increasingly impatient about “deteriorating” (says Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) conditions. The war already is nearly 50 percent longer than the combined U.S. involvements in two world wars, and NATO assistance is reluctant and often risible.I really don't have much to criticize George Will for on this. His arguments are based on facts and our lack of clear objectives, but maybe General McChrystal come up with a more suitable strategy with his recent report to CENTCOM and the Pentagon. I don't pretend that I have some master plan, but at least the guy who is supposed to has a good-looking set of pants.
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.
Military historian Max Hastings says Kabul controls only about a third of the country — “control” is an elastic concept — and “ ‘our’ Afghans may prove no more viable than were ‘our’ Vietnamese, the Saigon regime.”
See what the others have said:
4 comments:
Here's how it ends in Afghanistan from my uninformed, under-rearched view: heavy fighting continues over the next few months with continuing high casualties. Winter sets in, turning the country into Planet Hoth from Empire Strikes Back.
The bad guys will hibernate until April, but sometime in January the President will come out and say something like "fighthing has decreased 90%, we kicked their ass, it's time to bring our troops home".
The end.
Everything's up in the air now...no telling how this will all end.
Hey Nixon. I kinda think Wek might be right. But who knows. I don't even know where to begin on commenting about the current affairs in Afghanistan - makes my head hurt too much. But I'm reading up on all my Central Asia history as prep for my next turn on "this" side of a deployment next year. Ever read "The Great Game?" Fascinating. And humbling . . . why would thousands of years of a warrior culture stop acting thusly just 'cause we're there?
That's right, Katy. Give Afghanistan back to the Afghans (such as they are.)
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