By Steve Hynd
First, Leslie H. Gelb, the president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, criticised Obama's decision to allow Georgia to send troops to Afghanistan - arguing that the consequences for Russian relations far outeigh the aid 700 troops can provide and saying it "reveals his lack of appreciation for exactly what it takes to accomplish big priorities". As Ben Katcher says, in follow-up:
The Afghan war has the potential to distract the Obama administration from the larger strategic issues of the day in a way that is analogous to Bush's war in Iraq. Just as Iraq opened doors for Iran and aggravated fissures with our European allies, the war in Afghanistan has the potential to raise serious questions about the NATO alliance while complicating our relationships with China, Russia, and Europe.
Then yesterday, it was the president of the CFR, Richard N. Hass, who took a critical tone, arguing that the occupation of Afghanistan is a war of choice, not necessity, and putting forward rational alternatives short of a full-on COIn-based occupation lasting decades.
there are alternatives to current American policy. One would reduce our troops� ground-combat operations and emphasize drone attacks on terrorists, the training of Afghan police officers and soldiers, development aid and diplomacy to fracture the Taliban.
A more radical alternative would withdraw all United States military forces from Afghanistan and center on regional and global counterterrorism efforts and homeland security initiatives to protect ourselves from threats that might emanate from Afghanistan. Under this option, our policy toward Afghanistan would resemble the approach toward Somalia and other countries where governments are unable or unwilling to take on terrorists and the United States eschews military intervention.
It's a refreshing change of tone. Dr. Bernard Finel writes:
Even his �radical� alternative is far from the caricature of abandonment used as a strawman by most advocates of escalation in Afghanistan.
The tide of opinion is definitely turning.
I missed that tidbit about Georgia sending troops to Afghanistan. So what we have is troops from a nation that can barely hold itself together fighting for the US in a nation-building exercise in order to win the good graces of the US in its bid to join NATO. (and they thought that starting a war with the Russians would have been good enough)
ReplyDeleteThe Obama administration's foreign policy plays are starting to make Clinton (Bill) look like a statesman.