Rep. Frank Wolf, the congressman who originally proposed the Iraq Study Group, has written to President Obama, asking him to set up an Afghanistan-Pakistan Study Group. As I said almost four years ago, I respected the idea behind the Iraq Study Group. Rep. Wolf realized things were not going well in Iraq, maybe even before President Bush did.
Unfortunately, the Iraq Study Group’s proposals were not what we needed. However, at the same time the congressman was pushing for the Iraq Study Group, General David Petraeus and others were rewriting the US counterinsurgency manual, which was what we needed.
As I said, Rep. Wolf now wants an Af-Pak Study Group. He says that many of the senior diplomats, policy experts and members of the military he talked to "believe our Afghanistan policy is adrift, and all agreed that there is an urgent need for a bipartisan group to assess that policy and recommend a way forward."
He continued:
"Recent polls show American support for the Afghanistan war is at an all time low and different members of this administration have made conflicting statements regarding the goals and objectives in Afghanistan. I believe this lack of clarity is eroding public support for the war and adding to the uncertainty of victory in Afghanistan."*
Public support for Afghanistan is failing, but unlike Iraq in 2005 and 2006, the problem in Afghanistan is not that we have the wrong strategy. We have the right strategy. We know the general parameters of what we need to do.
Among the reasons for the erosion in public support is, as Congressman Wolf noted, conflicting statements by different members of the Obama administration. The solution, however, is not an Af-Pak study group, but a president who is willing to rally support for his policy in Afghanistan.
The Bush administration did a bad job in Iraq. While the invasion went well and General Petraeus turned things around in 2007-08, in between our policy was a disaster. But even when things were going poorly, there was never a doubt that George W. Bush was willing to spend his time, effort and political capital to support his policies in Iraq.
Over the last few days President Obama has been crisscrossing the country to raise money for Democrats for the fall election. He has spoken more than once about the proposed mosque near Ground Zero. But Afghanistan? Not much that I have seen. I would hope President Obama could find the time to speak out more forcefully in defense of what we are doing in Afghanistan. Those of us who favor those efforts need the President’s active support for his own policy
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* The newsletter from which these quotations were taken is not yet available on Rep. Wolf’s website. When it becomes available, I will link to it. In the meantime, here is the press release the congressman issued, including the letter he sent to the President.
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