Obama's undecided position on Afghanistan is deplorable.
Obama indicated to Congress that he is undecided on troop buildup in Afghanistan, but at the same time pledges no reductions. A man with no experience what so ever has found himself in a tough situation and can't decide, which is fine when it comes to buying a dog, not so fine when it comes to American lives. Military situations cannot exist in a state of inaction, inaction leads to paralysis which leads to death. Obama is close to committing a crime here, this is akin to a general trying to decided whether to pull his division out of deadly fire or send help and ultimately making no decision. A recipe for removal.
There are two options in Afghanistan and while one is more obvious both make more sense. First option is to withdraw soldiers out and leave an invisible special operations presence to disrupt the Taliban from making progress. If that combination worked to remove them from power it could certainly prevent them from obtaining it again. Doing so will give us two immediate advantages. First, we could send some of our tired soldiers home for much needed R&R and it will reduce us to one conflict. One conflict will make us leaner and will allow us to continue pressuring countries to clean up their Al Qaeda situation and more importantly it will send a message to Iran: we just slimmed down our operations and military force against you is a viable option. Remember, we never intended to occupy Afghanistan - it is a useless tundra splintered into warring factions under the rule of tribal warlords with different cultures and desires. Not a place we want to be.
Second option is a massive troop surge a la Baghdad. Immediate troops on the ground with extensive backup and support will flood Afghanistan and put a stop to erroneous attacks by Taliban and their sympathizers. However unlike Iraq, unless we plan to dominate the entire countryside even a surge of 40,000 additional troops will accomplish very little other than a temporary relief from violence. This operation will simply exhaust our troops further and put a giant question mark on what our intention was, what our goal is and how do we win in a place we never intended to occupy. Unless America is planning to open up military action against Iran by surrounding the country from both sides, what do we gain?
Obama may be waiting for the Russians to agree to sanctions against Iran, especially considering possible credible leaks suggesting Russian scientists are involved in Iranian nuclear operations. Regardless of what the Russians do we have to make a decision. We need to either put up or shut up.
This is precisely why a massive withdrawal of troops from around the world could be a very good idea. Not because isolationism works, but because government does not. We have the best military in the world, but foreign policy is all about politics and politics is all about government officials trying to meddle in matters well beyond their thinking capacity. We simply cannot trust people who thought Cash for Clunkers was a good idea with the lives of young Americans.
There are two options in Afghanistan and while one is more obvious both make more sense. First option is to withdraw soldiers out and leave an invisible special operations presence to disrupt the Taliban from making progress. If that combination worked to remove them from power it could certainly prevent them from obtaining it again. Doing so will give us two immediate advantages. First, we could send some of our tired soldiers home for much needed R&R and it will reduce us to one conflict. One conflict will make us leaner and will allow us to continue pressuring countries to clean up their Al Qaeda situation and more importantly it will send a message to Iran: we just slimmed down our operations and military force against you is a viable option. Remember, we never intended to occupy Afghanistan - it is a useless tundra splintered into warring factions under the rule of tribal warlords with different cultures and desires. Not a place we want to be.
Second option is a massive troop surge a la Baghdad. Immediate troops on the ground with extensive backup and support will flood Afghanistan and put a stop to erroneous attacks by Taliban and their sympathizers. However unlike Iraq, unless we plan to dominate the entire countryside even a surge of 40,000 additional troops will accomplish very little other than a temporary relief from violence. This operation will simply exhaust our troops further and put a giant question mark on what our intention was, what our goal is and how do we win in a place we never intended to occupy. Unless America is planning to open up military action against Iran by surrounding the country from both sides, what do we gain?
Obama may be waiting for the Russians to agree to sanctions against Iran, especially considering possible credible leaks suggesting Russian scientists are involved in Iranian nuclear operations. Regardless of what the Russians do we have to make a decision. We need to either put up or shut up.
This is precisely why a massive withdrawal of troops from around the world could be a very good idea. Not because isolationism works, but because government does not. We have the best military in the world, but foreign policy is all about politics and politics is all about government officials trying to meddle in matters well beyond their thinking capacity. We simply cannot trust people who thought Cash for Clunkers was a good idea with the lives of young Americans.
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