Strength, Courage, and Wisdom: A 2nd Opinion on the Strategy for Afghanistan.
Words.
"War and economic crisis are certain to define Obama's presidency, despite his hopes for a dramatic expansion of opportunity through domestic reforms, such as universal access to affordable healthcare. Tuesday's address thus will long stand as a milestone, and a reminder that history dishes out its challenges without respect to the agendas of politicians or parties. By meeting Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's request for tens of thousands of additional troops to fight the war in Afghanistan, the president has done two things: He has reaffirmed the sincerity of his campaign declaration that the Afghan war is one of necessity while that in Iraq is one of choice. Equally important, he has accepted his advisors' belief that the hard-won lessons of the Iraqi conflict are transferable to Afghanistan.
...However the costs are borne, moreover, no one should fool themselves about the real end game here. The most the United States can hope to achieve in Afghanistan is to pacify the countryside and empower the military and police sufficiently so that the Taliban doesn't reopen the country to internationally minded jihadis like Al Qaeda. The United States will not remake Afghan society nor create a recognizable democracy there, nor will we emancipate the country's wretchedly treated women. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, it was a desperately poor, mainly illiterate, deeply traditional, xenophobic and backward place. It still is. The Soviets' occupation added an overlay of brutality and lawlessness, while the Islamic fighters who flocked to resist them introduced a virulently intolerant version of Islam previously unknown there. On any given day, it's a coin toss as to whether the most dangerous failed state in the world is Somalia or Afghanistan.
...The Afghan conflict is a war of necessity, and the troops sent to prosecute it now appear to have the means required to bring it to a successful conclusion. And though Obama's strategy will not transform Afghanistan, it may someday make that country safe enough to leave.
The notion that anything more can be achieved in that backward and tragic place is folly, as is the wishful fantasy that American casualties will do anything but climb in the months ahead."
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