There is no question things are not going well in Afghanistan. Michael Yon, who I have mentioned before, has been saying since 2006 that we are losing in Afghanistan. Others have noticed it more recently. So, what do we do now?
During the campaign last year, and even this year, Barack Obama called Afghanistan "the good war" (as opposed to Iraq, which was "the bad war"). Continuing that theme, since being elected president he has said Afghanistan is a war of necessity, unlike Iraq, which he called a war of choice.
But now the President is having troubles – with his own party. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, said President Obama would face opposition if he tried to increase the number of troops in Afghanistan. "I don’t think there is a great deal of support for sending more troops to Afghanistan in the country or in Congress."
Carl Levin, Senator from Michigan and chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, wants to "hold off on a commitment to send more combat troops until these additional steps to strengthen the Afghan security forces are put in motion."
Perhaps as a result, The New York Times reported: "The White House has begun to indicate it could be weeks or perhaps much longer before Mr. Obama decides whether to send more troops to Afghanistan."
This is not good. Regardless of what you think we should do in Afghanistan, either stay in or get out, the one thing we should not do is to temporize, go halfway, do a little and then hope.
As I said, all indications are that we are losing in Afghanistan. Continuing on our present course will result in a long, slow defeat. Perhaps we need a re-evaluation of whether we should be in Afghanistan. I think we need to be there, but others may (and do) disagree. But regardless of what our decision is, we need to make it and then follow through on it. If, as I hope, we decide we need to be in Afghanistan, then we need to commit to do what we have to do to succeed* and we need to do it now. We should not wait to send more troops until after we take additional steps to strengthen and train more Afghan forces. It is not a matter of trying to train Afghan forces first and then, if that doesn’t work, sending more US troops. If we need to be there, then we need to do both of them, and we need to do both of them now.
Similarly, we shouldn’t wait to decide whether to send more troops. We don’t have time for half-way measures. We have done that for most of the last eight years. If we want to succeed in Afghanistan, then the President needs to devote the time and attention to making sure the job gets done. And if we are staying, we need to go in with enough, maybe even more than enough, to give ourselves the best possible chance to succeed.
Finally, we need a policy that is designed for Afghanistan, not for Washington. Too many times during the war in Iraq, Washington politicians would suggest policies for Iraq based on what they thought would be acceptable in Washington. That was wrong for Iraq, and it would be wrong for Afghanistan. Things do not work that way. You have to match what you need to do in Afghanistan with what will work in Afghanistan.
Basically, we need to decide what we are going to do in Afghanistan. We need to decide quickly, and then we need to do what our decision requires. Anything else is unfair both to the Afghan people and to the servicemen and women who are in Afghanistan on our behalf.
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* Note that I said "succeed," not "win". We do not need to crush the enemy, a la World War II. We just need to accomplish our goals, i.e., to succeed.
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