Don't Worry, Obama, The Neocons Have Your Back!

By Steve Hynd

It is simply ludicrous that any think-tank founded by Robert Kagan, William Kristol, and Dan Senor should be self-described as a "non-partisan organization". Who do they think they'll fool? The Foreign Policy Initiative is a reconstituted Project For A New American Century, as is plain from the list of signatories appended to a letter telling President Obama that they support his escalation of the Afghan occupation. It's a who's who of the neocon leadership past and present, of the people who brought you Quagmiraq and Quagmiristan in the first place:

The letter�s signers so far are: Steve Biegun, Max Boot, Ellen Bork, Paul Bremer, Christian Brose, Debra Burlingame, Eliot A. Cohen, Ryan C. Crocker, Thomas Donnelly, Eric Edelman, William S. Edgerly, Jamie M. Fly, David Frum, Abe Greenwald, John Hannah, Pete Hegseth, Margaret Hoover, Thomas Joscelyn, Frederick W. Kagan, Robert Kagan, William Kristol, Tod Lindberg, Herbert London, Clifford May, Robert C. McFarlane, Joshua Muravchik, Sarah Palin, Keith Pavlischek, Beverly Perlson, Danielle Pletka, John Podhoretz, Stephen Rademaker, Mitchell B. Reiss, Karl Rove, Jennifer Rubin, Randy Scheunemann, Gary Schmitt, Dan Senor, Ashley Tellis, Marc Thiessen, Daniel Twining, Peter Wehner, Kenneth Weinstein, and Christian Whiton.

The letter revisits a few of the usual,discredited, arguments: that losing in Afghanistan would mean the return of Al Qaeda there and thus more attacks on America (yet AQ's decentralized structure can plan attacks from anywhere - Yemen, Frankfurt, Leeds, Florida...) or that losing in Afghanistan would put Pakistan and its nuclear arsenal at risk (like a few thousand rag-tag herdsmen have a chance of defeating the world's fifth largest military-industrial complex or like the US presence isn't the think Pakistanis themselves cite as the most destabilizing factor). It also contains all the usual neocon "9/11 changed everything except America's right to hegemonic supremacy" rhetoric and warns Obama that the neocons won't tolerate anything but a full Vietnam-style escalation of the occupation.

Since the announcement of your administration�s new strategy, we have been troubled by calls for a drawdown of American forces in Afghanistan and a growing sense of defeatism about the war.  With General McChrystal expected to request additional troops later this month, we urge you to continue on the path you have taken thus far and give our commanders on the ground the forces they need to implement a successful counterinsurgency strategy. There is no middle course. Incrementally committing fewer troops than required would be a grave mistake and may well lead to American defeat.  We will not support half-measures that repeat the errors of the past.

...Mr. President, you have put in place the military leadership and sent the initial resources required to begin bringing this war to a successful conclusion. The military leadership has devised a strategy that will reverse the errors of previous years, free Afghans from the chains of tyranny, and keep America safe.  We call on you to fully resource this effort, do everything possible to minimize the risk of failure, and to devote the necessary time to explain, soberly and comprehensively, to the American people the stakes in Afghanistan, the route to success, and the cost of defeat.

Hang on..."the errors of previous years"? Weren't many of the signators to this letter part of the administration (and its pet think-tanks) that made and compounded those errors?

If you lay down with dogs, you'll get up with fleas. It's time to begin drawing bright lines in the Af/Pak debate. The Obama administration and its neoliberal interventionist supporters have aligned themselves with the neocons, the instigators of so much atrocious American foreign policy. That bipartisan consensus of hawks is opposed by another bipartisan consensus of progressives and realist conservatives who oppose escalation, and by the bulk of the American public.

Progressives need to start asking themselves if they're at all comfortable with Obama's allies.