Obama's next move in Afghanistan.

The NYT's reported today that the Obama Administration has been weighing its military strategy in Afghanistan over the last few weeks. Since the release of the McCrystal report which said that "Mission Failure" would be inevitable without adequate support (i.e more troops.) The President has taken a step back to review his options. One of those options is strongely advocated by Vice President Biden. His strategy shift would scale back the number of troops and focus more on capturing and dismantling Al Qaeda. The idea is that the fight is not just in Afghanistan, earlier this month a US air strike killed Ilyas Kashmiri the leader of Al Qaeda paramilitary operations in Pakistan. With stronger intelligence along side highly trained special forces Biden believes the US can subdue Qaeda and protect Americans from future attacks. On the contrary though Secratary Clinton told reporters that without the International Security Assistance Force the Taliban would easily create a safe haven for Al Qaeda.

The arguments for and against increasing troop levels could fill a multi volume book, but this is my take. We cannot automatically think that an influx of troops will solve our problems. The surge in Iraq worked for a number of reasons. First it was primarily aimed at the city of Baghdad, in Afghanistan this will not be the case. Instead of focusing our troops in a single city we will have to fight on a number of fronts throughout the country. It should also be noted that the McCrystal report showed that we will be facing three different enemies with extensive financing. The other point is that a backlash against the insurgency coincided with the surge in Baghdad. With an increase in troops and more incidents like the ISAF's air strike that killed 30 civilians the only back lash I see is one against international forces. With that said, I cannot say I disagree with the deployment of additional troops. If the president does decide to go forward he must realize that the bare minimum is not enough, Kennedy gave that during Vietnam and it did not solve our problems. If you want complete security with out the risk of the Taliban and Qaeda returning you must go in strong and with a conviction to show the people that you are fighting for their future.

On the other hand that strategy could take another 8 years and even more US causalities. Not to mention the fiscal cost. My final consensus... Follow Biden's plan, but also go along with Senate democrats and rapidly increase the Afghani military/police force. Oh yea and Karzai has to show his people that he is willing to have a legitimate government, even if that means he is not President.

TLH