Frankly I'm disappointed in President Obama's public head fake on Afghanistan. I am not a stereotypical hawk by any means...and although I have tremendous respect for General "Stan the Man" McChrystal - a super hard-charging Ranger and legend in the SOF community - I try to take an independent view.
It's true Afghanistan has an incredible warrior culture and a history of outfighting and outlasting empires throughout history. It's also true that the so-called "elected" officials are incredibly corrupt, and undermine the legitimacy of the government of "the good guys". Further I agree that although the Taliban are from my view distasteful to say the least, I don't recognize them as an immediate and direct threat to US interests outside of their own territory.
Having said that I strongly believe that we need to support General McChrystal and give his innovative plan a real shot. Imagine how those Marines feel "winning hearts and minds" - and can't even commit they'll be there in a couple of months! What message does that send to the locals, and who's waiting to fill that vacuum of power?
And the biggest question for me - what about the spillover into (nuclear) Pakistan, a struggling democracy? And on the other side, what about (soon-to-be-nuclear) Iran, who is directly and openly hostile to US and our interests in addition to being a highly destabilizing influence throughout the Middle East?
In my opinion - as anyone within shouting distance from me knows (starting in '91) - the invasion of Iraq and subsequent regime change was all but doomed from the start. In Afghanistan we have a shot - let's not squander it!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment