It's official. Barak Obama is now George Bush. At least as far as war-fighting is concerned. In tonight's address to the nation, which was more campaign speech than strategy session, Obama revealed his plan for Afghanistan. Which was no plan at all.
Apparently, in Obama's mind, Afghanistan is vital to our national security, unlike Iraq (which he reminded the West Pointers, he opposed). How is Afghanistan vital to our security? He didn't really say, and every time he did mention the country he appended Pakistan to the name. We use drones to attack Pakistan for the most part, so why the need for the current troops, plus 35,000 more?
While declaring Afghanistan such a vital national security interest, Obama also set a time line of 18 months before troops start moving out of the theater. Even Bob Schaeffer of CBS News was incredulous in restating Obama's apparent contradiction...a vital war with a time limit. (Although Katie Couric stupidly tried to explain to Shaeffer that all Barak was doing was signalling the Afghan government we couldn't stay there forever. Shaeffer didn't swallow that bit of news, and even re-stated that our short term involvement was the ultimate Taliban goal).
What we ended up hearing was a war rationale with no strategic end or goal , no declaration of what would constitute a victory, a 35,000 strong troop surge, and a time limit for a supposedly vital war. None of that makes any sense at all, and all of it sounds exactly like the actions taken by George Bush, except Bush had the sense never to set a public deadline. Let's see if CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, and MSNBC catch the similarity between today's speech and Bush's conduct of both wars, or if they give Barak a pass. I assume Chis Matthews is still feeling a chill run up his leg.
Our President already demonstrated that he wasn't about to honor his own deadline on Iraq, and I doubt he will do so in Afghanistan. And even if his resolve is strong, President Obama tonight pledged what the Taliban has always expected---we're not in it for the long haul. And as soon as we leave, the Taliban will be back in power. Thus, either Obama will be forced to leave troops in there beyond his first term, or in the alternative, more Americans (and NATO troops) will die without a clear objective or end game and a final result of the pre-9-11 status quo ante.
Let's see if anyone else besides the so-called "Faux News" and the far left attack the President as they did his predecessor.
2 comments:
Pakistan is the anvil and the troop surge is the hammer. The Pashtun tribe (primary composition of the Taliban) live on the border in Waziristan and other autonomous areas and the only way to contain their fighting capabilities and keep them out of Kabul is to maintain pressure from both sides. A porous border is not in our national interest either for future posed nuclear threats by Taliban-backed Al Qaeda and for the smuggling of opiates. I guess I'm proclaiming the obvious in stating that Pakistan is vital to this effort right now, but they will be extremely influential going forward when/if we get some Afghanis trained to maintain their own country prior to our withdrawal. No American strategy should marginalize their role in this thing.
I watch Fox News and Pat R too and both the Murdoch crowd and the 700 Clubbers are trying to have it both ways. Pat said today we should just pull out now. Go figure.
Miles
Great comment, Miles. I agree, especially with Pakistan. What I want to hear is the President state that objective and then refrain from announcing a time table for withdrawal until that objective is reached, both in Afghanistan and Pakistan. My concern with Afghan taking over its own "defense" lies with the tribal structure and their concerns with territory, opium and other issues. Those leaders move back and forth between religious, terror, NATO and government forces depending upon who best serves their interests. Ideology not a factor in many cases.
Porous borders were/are a major problem in Iraq and now Afghanistan. And how do we get Pakistan to cooperate with their military infiltrated with sympathizers for the Islamisist forces.
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