
AFTER NEARLY TWO YEARS of campaigning on a platform of hasty withdrawal from Iraq and a refocusing of American efforts on Afghanistan, a country Democrats have spent years referring to as the location of “the real War on Terror,” President Barack Obama has come out with an overview of his administration’s strategy for the region.
Unfortunately, as often seems to be the case when Obama policy prescriptions are finally made public after months of innuendo, the administration’s plan for Afghanistan (and the actual central front in the War on Terror, Pakistan) is largely made up of platitudes and half-measures, and reflects a lack of understanding about – or an overall unwillingness to accept – the facts on the ground in the region and the gravity of America’s fight there.
AMERICA’S GOAL IN THE REGION, according to Obama, is “to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future.” In pursuit of this nebulous goal, which can be categorically filed under “Would take far more time and dedication than Obama (and, unfortunately, the American population) would ever willingly put into it,” the president laid out several points of emphasis.
These points, each of which will be addressed in an installment over the next week, can be grouped into the following five goals:
- Implementing a ‘surge’ of forces in Afghanistan (and augmenting that with a so-called “civilian surge”);
- Growing the Afghan Security Forces, both police and army, by such numbers and with such speed that they will be able to assume responsibility securing large portions of the country in a very short time;
- Attempting to achieve reconciliation with less-hardline Taliban militants and promoting an open, honest, and effective Afghan national government;
- Expanding international support for the Afghan mission and convincing both NATO and regional players to take a more active role in combating terror and shaping the Afghan state; and, perhaps most importantly,
- Eliminating Taliban and al Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan, while simultaneously promoting democratic order within that fractured Islamic state.
Unfortunately, as the next five installments on this topic will demonstrate, President Obama’s strategy as currently laid out will do little to make a difference on any of these fronts.
Coming next: Examining Obama’s Afghan Plan: A ‘Surge’ in Soldiers and Civilians
Steve Maley
Neil Stevens
Daniel Horowitz
finally the Dimocrats have their Vietnam....
Jack (Diary) Sunday, April 5th at 3:12PM EST (link)As much as the media and the dims have loved screaming about the new Vietnam every time the US or Israel enters into an armed conflict they finally got one.
I fought in Vietnam as a “grunt” on the ground. I was in Saigon in 1975 and was airlifted from the US Embassy by helicopter when South Vietnam fell. I have been to Vietnam twice since the war. I now count old enemies as my friend.
Iraq was not Vietnam. Iraq was Germany after WW II with Werewolf battalions and dead enders. It took longer to pacify because the Americans were not allowed to use the tactics that were available to the allies after Germany surrendered.
The French and Russians were not patrolling Baghdad with “rape squads”. In 1946 two American soldiers were ambushed in Bavaria. The third Army pounded two towns into rumble for retaliation. There were no more ambushes.
Afghanistan is a terrible spot on the planet. We are not liked there. These people are in the 3rd century and do not wish to be a part of the 21st Century. I never went anywhere without at least a pistol when I was in Afghanistan.
The Soviets used over 300,000 combat forces, Russian, Soviet and Afghan during their occupation. The British lost entire Armies. Alexander lost 6,000 of his Army of 30,000 there in those Godforsaken mountains.
The dims have their Vietnam and they are welcome to it. President Bush gave Obama a victory in Iraq. He gave an workable stalemate in Afghanistan.
Obama has chosen to make it into a meat grinder. This is the dims war and the blood of those Americans are on their hands. As Iraq was on President Bush.
Jack
“If at age 20 you are conservative you have no heart. It at age 30 you are liberal you have no brains.” Sir Winston Churchill
Support a "Strong Man"?
SteveLA (Diary) Sunday, April 5th at 3:24PM EST (link)My question is will the Democrats throw in the towel and allow a strong man to emerge in ether Iraq or Afghanistan?
From a historical and cultural point of view, this part of the world has never had anything close to representative government that worked. It’s always some strong man, usually from the military who emerges and establishes ether benign or not so benign dictator rule.
What will the Code PinkO’s and other liberals do when His Obamaness refuses to insert American power to stop the rise of a dominate Strong man in ether country? Bush was committed to stabilizing both Iraq and Afghanistan using US power for as long as it took for democracy to take root, I somehow doubt Obama has the backbone to support democracy in the long run.
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Competency over ideological purity and litmus tests
Perhaps there is an Iranian angle that is being kept secret
civil truth (Diary) Sunday, April 5th at 5:51PM EST (link)Debak has a unique perspective in a recent analysis, one which has chilling implications for Israel.
Excerpts…
Once again we see a suggestion that Obama is seeing to ally with our enemies and throw our long-term allies under the train.
Obama’s motive with regards to Iran here is to try to come up with a painless “victory” that he can look like a hero at home, hoping that the consequences won’t become evident until he has solidified permanent power.
And by the way, I suspect another sacrifice to this Iran policy will be an acquiescence to Iranian hegemony over Iraq – at least over the Shiite regions.
The greatest evil…is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern. -C.S. Lewis
http://www.gmsplace.com/
That's Debka, not Debak -nt-
civil truth (Diary) Sunday, April 5th at 5:51PM EST (link)The greatest evil…is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern. -C.S. Lewis
http://www.gmsplace.com/
Democrats are Fairly Comfortable.....
wolfgang Monday, April 6th at 7:17AM EST (link)…….waging war against a perceived right wing enemy.
In WWII, both Germany and Japan were perceived as right wing enemies and the war proceeded as a no holds barred event.
The Democrats are far less comfortable standing up to a menacing, threatening, belligerent that has Leftist tinges about it. Hence the real reticence in confronting the Islamofascists, the ChiComms, or the ChiComms’ North Korean surrogates.
The Democrats are far more at ease throwing the bodies of the heads of a former right wing government and their families down a deserted Siberian well than those from a likewise Leftwing Government.
THE OBAMBI and his government wil spend more time confronting the North Korean and the Islamofascist threats with their hands in their pockets than the time spent raising even a single finger against them
This is rich,
Wayne (Diary) Monday, April 6th at 10:29AM EST (link).”promoting an open, honest, and effective Afghan national government;” Now, I think I’ve got this figured out, this administration, which is led by a non-leader, staffed by crooks, tax cheats, political hacks and back-room deal-makers, is going to promote democratic order in Afghanistan? I don’t think so. But I’m sure that Hillary and The Obamunist will tell us up is down, black is white and all that. And I meant black is white in a non-racist way. We don’t have open, honest and effective government here, how can they hope to bring it anywhere else.
“Hell, these are Marines. Men like them held Guadalcanal, and took Iwo Jima, Baghdad ain’t s–t”. Maj. Gen. John F. Kelly, USMC, Deputy CG, First MEF