Obama Must Tell It Like It Is On Afghanistan

"Think back to the summer of 2009. The world waited as President Obama had meeting after meeting with his military chiefs to decide what strategy to take in Afghanistan. Speculation mounted. Was he going to escalate the conflict, as General McChrystal wanted? Or was he going to accept that no foreign force had ever fully pacified Afghanistan, and that given the mounting cost and public opposition, he would begin to end the other war that President Bush started? He had, after all, won on a platform of change, and although a de-escalation was not likely, it was possible.

When he finally decided to send 30,000 extra troops, the reason he gave for taking so long to decide was that he was wrestling with a genuine dilemma: if he showed too little resolve, the Taliban would be emboldened. But if he showed too much, the painful process of handing ownership of security to Afghan military and police forces, with all the training, discipline, and steel needed for that task, would not happen. The question was how to reinforce the US presence without removing the Afghan army's incentive to step up and begin to take control of security itself. There was a real danger that Afghan officials would simply accept that the American military was there for the long-term, and the serious effort needed to build a viable state structure could wait...."

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