The Blog at the Weekly Standard posted an article by William Kristol yesterday about the delay in sending more troops to Afghanistan. As the mother-in-law of a Marine headed there shortly, I am very interested in this debate.
According to the article:
""It would be reckless to make a decision on U.S. troop level if, in fact, you haven't done a thorough analysis of whether, in fact, there's an Afghan partner ready to fill that space that the U.S. troops would create and become a true partner in governing the Afghan country." -- White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, on CNN today (Sunday)"
William Kristol has four arguments against this statement:
1. Many of the people in the current White House were against sending more troops even before the election in Afghanistan took place. Rahm Emanuel and Joe Biden were both on the record as opposing more troops.
2. President Obama announced his Afghanistan strategy on March 27. The Obama team had months to move to insure that the election would be carried out honestly. There was no doubt that without political and diplomatic moves, the election would be corrupt. Then, on August 17, President Obama restated his commitment to win in Afghanistan, when it was known that the election would be corrupt. Now the administration is acting as if a corrupt election was a surprise.
3. If the White House complained about General McChrystal publicly stating his opinions about what was needed to win the war, what is the justification for Rahm Emanuel going on CNN and voicing his opinion?
4. The policy of delay is stupid and reckless. We are leaving 68,000 undersupplied troops in Afghanistan to do a job that requires 108,000. When you consider the lessons learned (we hope) in Iraq, this is foolish. The political history in that part of the world shows that the people in Afghanistan will side with the group they feel will protect them and that will stand with them against the weaker group. There is no morality involved; it is matter of survival.
There were a number of things that turned the tide is Iraq. One was the troop surge which allowed us to bring peace to troubled areas and stabilize the situation. The other thing that made a difference in Iraq was the unbelievable cruelty practiced by Al Qaeda in Iraq against the Iraqis.
Afghanistan has lived under the Taliban. They know what it is like. The women in that country know what it is like. The dithering at the White House may cost us our allies in the region and it will definitely cost American lives. President Obama needs to live up to his campaign pledges and do what we need to do to win.
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