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Afghanistan: What are We Thinking?
Barack Obama, like the rest of us, apparently, sees no problem with the war in Afghanistan. In fact, he said today that it's a war "we must win."
I for one don't think we can possibly "win" in Afghanistan, just like we can't "win" in Iraq (or Iran).
Check the history books: great powers have utterly failed in Afghanistan.
When are progressives going to wake up and realize that our war in Afghanistan is every bit as flawed as our war in Iraq?
Why are progressives reluctant to challenge US policy in Afghanistan?
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Comments (5)
Not sure I am disagreeing much, but I do think there is a difference. Between toppling a regime and routing out and ridding a country of the Taliban. Especially when the county really doesn't want them.( This assumes they don't) Is it winnable. Given I'm not sure how you define win, I don't know. I do think what you want to "try" accomplish is making the country both socially and politically inhospitable to the Taliban.
July 15, 2008 2:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
A) What jsfox said.
B) Bush made the military mistake of fight a war on two fronts. Whatever else you might think of the war in Iraq (and most of us have similar opinions on it), fighting the Iraq war while also fighting the Afghanistan war was militarily stupid. Anti-war protesters seem to not be making the same mistake. First, we try to stop the war in Iraq. (Which, of course, is far less popular than the war in Afghanistan since the rationale for it was bogus and there was little international support.) If/when we're successful, we go after the war in Afghanistan. Don't ruin this by broadcasting this information anywhere, however, like on the internet or something. ;)
C) Many still want to see bin Laden definitively dead.
July 15, 2008 3:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's a reasonable question. I think Ben's answer covers many of the bases.
If I would underline anything, it's that -- whatever you think of the policy merits -- it's a good move, politically, to frame our plan to withdraw from Iraq as a way of "getting tough on Bin Laden."
I think there probably *are* good reasons for us to stay in Afghanistan a while. But even if there weren't, Ben is right that "let's withdraw everywhere at once" is not a great plan to announce in the campaign.
July 15, 2008 5:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Also, if I can just say one thing related to this topic.
I don't want to be too much of a suck-up, but the last couple of days Josh Marshall has been kicking butt. I think his catch today about McCain's decision to adopt Obama's policy on Afghanistan is really important. I try not to be too paranoid about the ulterior motives of the MSM, but I am beginning to wonder if maybe a large part of the problem is, as Josh says, that they get stuck in a script and can't get out of it until someone writes another script and hands it to 'em.
July 15, 2008 5:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
There's a really interesting article today in the New Republic. The title's offputting, but the content is fascinating - it's focusing on Beers and Clarke and they're influence on Obama: describing what the author thinks will come to be seen as The Obama Dotrine - outsourcing the fight. ie getting proxies to fight your enemies.
Worth reading. `Contra Expectations`
http://tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=0e0846cd-694f-40d1-a6d9-55e20de176cf&p=2
July 15, 2008 9:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
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