I don’t have any firm opinions about what we should do in Afghanistan at this juncture.
In favor of the surge, it’s supported by some very credible individuals (e.g. Robert Gates, Gen Petraeus, Gen McChrystal, the Joint Chiefs).
On the other hand, you also have military pundits like Ralph Peters who think that strategy is ill-conceived. And I myself have never been sanguine about the prospects for nation-building in the Muslim world.
It doesn’t seem to me that Afghanistan, per se, has much strategic value. What strategic value is has is entirely subservient to the fate of Pakistan.
It does seem to me that this is an all-in or all-out proposition. Unless we have sufficient manpower on the ground, then we don’t even have enough troops to defend themselves, much less go on the offensive or pursue the strategic objective–whatever that is. So the last thing we need are half-measures. Splitting the difference turns our soldiers into target practice for the enemy.
Perhaps it’s sufficient to maintain some army/air force bases on the Afghan border from which we can mount coordinated operations with the Pakistan army to keep jihadis at manageable levels.
But, at present, Obama is procrastinating. He desperately wants to break his hawkish campaign promise without seeming weak. But weakness is exactly what he conveys by his studied procrastination. That, of itself, is very dangerous in a dangerous world.
I would vote "all-out" (as in get all of our folks out of there except for the bases that you suggest.) There is no strategic value to the US. Like you, I am not hopeful at all about "nation-building" there. If some terrorist planning does begin to occur there, we can still be near enough to disrupt it. Our military could greatly benefit from the stand-down. And the cut in military spending would help, however little, in the domestic economy.
ReplyDeleteWell, as one whose first born son, 19 years old, is at Fort Campbell waiting to deploy to Afghanistan, I have a firm opinion.
ReplyDeleteI would hope the decision makers putting our sons and daughters in harms way would be kissing up to the armed forces of the former Soviet Union or any other army who has attempted to and failed to turn the tide of Taliban social and political and religious beliefs among the highlanders where we supposedly are to deploy direct hits upon the head of the oppressors to stop them, to destroy them, who seem to have freedom to impose ungodliness upon their own and get a decisive direction to put this enemy to flight with our armed forces still:::>
Psa 72:1 Of Solomon. Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son!
Psa 72:2 May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice!
Psa 72:3 Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness!
Psa 72:4 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor!
Psa 72:5 May they fear you while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations!
War (is) not conservative (Rep. John J. Duncan)
ReplyDeleteBy Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr. (R-Tenn.) - 11/18/09 12:04 PM ET
There is nothing conservative about the war in Afghanistan. The Center for Defense Information said a few months ago that we had spent over $400 billion on the war and war-related costs there. Now, the Pentagon says it will cost about $1 billion for each 1,000 additional troops we send to Afghanistan. One Republican Member from California told me recently that we could buy off every warlord in Afghanistan for $1 billion.
Fiscal conservatives should be the ones most horrified by all this spending. Conservatives who oppose big government and huge deficit spending at home should not support it in foreign countries just because it is being done by our biggest bureaucracy, the Defense Department.
We have now spent $1.5 trillion that we did not have--that we had to borrow--in Iraq and Afghanistan. Eight years is long enough. In fact, it is too long. Let's bring our troops home and start putting Americans first once again.
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/68365-war-not-conservative-rep-john-j-duncan
Must agree with you. Why not just leave Afghanistan the heck alone. Have some forces nearby to smack down any terrorist operations, but other than that, let them be.
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