Afghanistan: Obama's Fantasy Island

[unhappycamper]

Afghanistan: Obama's Fantasy Island
Michael Brenner
Senior Fellow, the Center for Transatlantic Relations
Posted: November 5, 2009 03:29 PM

Obama will do the predictable next week and sign on to plans for an expanded American commitment in Afghanistan. It will be a somewhat modified version of the McChrystal strategy. The White House will dexterously perform its patented sleight of hand to cast the decision as the only reasonable course between the advocates of dramatic escalation and the cut-and-run crowd.

In truth, he could not do otherwise - for three reasons. One, he already has pronounced AFPAK "the necessary war." Two, he climbed out on the political limb during the campaign in boosting the Afghan enterprise so as to protect himself against Republican charges of being a spineless dove on national security, however misguided the premise. Three, Obama set the bureaucratic and military gears in motion back in March at the time of Super Afghan Review I. Hence, he is locked in through his own poor judgments on all three fronts: intellectual, political and military.

The month long Super Afghan Review II has had only one possible termination point. Now it is just a matter of stating publicly what was predetermined. The country's political class, loosely defined, is collectively as culpable for this feckless willingness to perform what is a fool's errand. For we haven't pressed to know why America is there, what reasonable expectations are, or the enormous risks of the venture. The administration has been very happy not having to answer those never posed questions. For it is incapable of a coherent response. Richard Holbrooke was queried at the Center for American Progress back in August how specifically he would define success. His response:

The specific goal ... is really hard for me to address in specific terms. But I would say this about defining success in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In the simplest sense, the Supreme Court test for another issue, we'll know it when we see it.

The unwitting reference is to a comment by Supreme Court Justice Potter Steward in an opinion on a landmark pornography case. This is what passes for grand strategy in Washington these days under a change president.


Rest of article at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-brenner/afghanistan-obamas-led-ze_b_347318.html

[thunder rising]

1. Huff hiring a neocon ... who'da thunk

[ixion]

2. uh-huh...so if you're a blood-thristy war hawk, you're an 'advocate' but if you believe

that invading Afghanistan was a mistake, your a member of the 'cut-and-run crowd.'

Yeah. Riiiight. :eyes: