Afghanistan: Buckle Your Seat BeltsMichael Brenner
Senior Fellow, the Center for Transatlantic Relations
Posted: November 11, 2009 02:57 PM
Obama's decision to go along with the Petraeus/McChrystal campaign for a massive escalation in Afghanistan and the Pakistani borderlands contradicts every precept of sound strategy and statesmanship. Rarely, if ever, has a great power so willfully set itself down the path of self-destruction with so little reason. This is pathological behavior that cries out for diagnosis and correction.
The stake is the supposed presence of less than a hundred al-Qaida personnel who long ago lost control of their loose franchise operation and have next to no capacity themselves to do us harm. As for the Taliban, strictly a local outfit, we are not their enemy - except as occupiers of Afghanistan. It is impossible, therefore, to reach our zero tolerance threshold for any "bad guys" active anywhere in AF/PAK for evermore - that is the fanciful goal of Obama's doomed policy. The costs and hazards are enormous. They include severe political strife and, perhaps, civil war in Pakistan of which we are a primary cause. Yet, public debate is non-existent. Why?
Afghanistan is not a "people's war"; it is a war of America's political class that is nearly unanimous in endorsing its ends and means. A clear majority of the public opposes the Obama escalation - 54% at last tally. This is stunning given the drumbeat of ritual war cries from every corner. Not a single elected official of stature has denounced it. The dread Americans feel that 9/11 might happen again is eclipsed by an instinctive fear of the high price and the risks of becoming custodian of this alien and violent land.
One explanation for the discrepancy lies in the residual trauma of 9/11. It has been so effectively exploited for eight years that public deference tends to be taken for granted. Among leaders, that horrific event continues to fire audacious schemes in the most remote corners of the world, commitments that are open-ended and ill-defined.
A second explanation is the fallacious analogy with Iraq, where our ruinous experience has been cynically recast as a success. Let's face it: Iraq is a lost cause - whether the cause was using it as a model of American style democratic virtue or as a bridgehead for American power in the region. Its future is beyond our control or even influence. The Iraqi Shi'ite leaders are showing us the door and welcoming the embrace of their Iranian co-religionists who are omnipresent and have intimate ties to every faction. This kick in the face has been easily concealed because Americans tuned out as soon as they were given a palatable story, i.e. the tall tale of Petraeus of Arabia, to cover the nation's shocking failure.
Rest of article about the land of the $1 million dollar soldier and $400 gallon of gas at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-brenner/afghanistan-buckle-your-s_b_354153.html
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