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AFGHAN-'NAM BLUES
By Ralph PetersExcerpt: Can anyone in the Obama administration articulate what we intend to achieve in Afghanistan? The Bush folks couldn't. I doubt this bunch can either. If our goal is to turn Afghanistan into a rule-of-law democracy, forget it. Iraq has an outside shot - it's a semi-modern society - although success is far from guaranteed. But a modernized Afghan state whose authority extends into every remote valley is an impossibility. If, however, our goal is only to prevent Afghanistan from again becoming a massive terrorist mother-ship, we can do that - and at a lower cost. But we'd have to have the guts to choose sides among factions and stop pretending that we're honest brokers. The impending troop surge faces the danger of LBJ-era accounting: the recurring conclusion that just one more rise in troop levels will tip the scales. You wind up with half a million troops deployed and a local population that wants you gone yesterday. Inherently, this one's a special-operations war. A sounder long-term approach would be fewer troops on the ground - and far less reliance on vulnerable supply routes through Pakistan. Regular combat units have a role to play, but as punitive strike forces, not a vast neighborhood watch (this is not Iraq). Ditch the claptrap that we can't kill our way out of this: Well-focused killing, for decades, is our only chance - and Afghanistan's. And dump the feel-good platitudes. In the real world off-campus, good marksmanship trumps good will. Posted by: ed 2009-04-15 |
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