Boston Globe article suggesting Kerry may lead call for change in policy in Afghanistan

[karynnj]

The article can't really be summarized by 4 paragraphs. What is clear is that Kerry is planning some pretty intense hearings that will question whether our policy is right. The full article needs to be read.

Once a key supporter of President Obama’s surge of troops in Afghanistan, Kerry said he has concluded that the US strategy in Afghanistan has to be revised. He is calling for a more limited focus and fewer American troops than the 155,000 that are in place now.

“What I don’t want is to be party to a policy that continues simply because it is there and in place,’’ Kerry said in an interview about his evolving views of the war in Afghanistan. “That would be like Vietnam. And that is what I am determined to try to prevent.’’
<snip>
“While he is supportive of the administration, Kerry has become the conscience,’’ said Stephen Clemons, director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank.
<snip>
“I don’t work for the administration,’’ Kerry said. “I work for the people of Massachusetts and I have a responsibility to myself and my conscience to get this right. I am determined to call it the way the truth tells me it ought to be called.’’

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2011/02/06/kerry_favors_reduced_us_role_in_afghanistan_war/?page=1

Here, where they see a change from "key surge supporter", I see a reluctant, conditional supporter of the policy that Obama chose that was in contrast to the policy that Kerry publicly recommended. The current failure, governance, is exactly what Kerry, in late 2009 before the surge, had publicly spoken of as his concern about the Obama policy.

There is also a lot of Vietnam vs Afghanistan where it seems that people are speaking of different things and not understanding what the other is saying. It is possible that there are many similarities between the two, yet they are not completely parallel. Kerry has consistently pointed out that one difference is that we had no strategic purpose in Vietnam - and do in Afghanistan.

Kerry's hearing with Holbrooke last summer was asking some real hard questions, but it looks like the hearings to come will probe deeper into the policy. This will likely be very interesting and extremely controversial. It should at least end the constant comments that Kerry is auditioning for Secretary of State. I can imagine that this will be extremely difficult for Kerry, but there are echoes of his Dissent line that it is wrong to stay quiet if the policy is wrong. This may be why ultimately that Kerry is better off in position where he can speak out.

(Very nice Kerry photo.)