Noble and Foolish

Eugene Robinson writes:

But the decisions on Afghanistan truly are either-or. Obama can decide to
pursue a counterinsurgency strategy or a counterterrorism strategy. He can do
one or the other -- not both. If he chooses counterinsurgency, he has to send
enough troops to make that strategy work. If he doesn't want to send all those
troops, he needs to pursue counterterrorism or do something else.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan who has
devised the counterinsurgency strategy, is asking for 40,000 or more additional
troops. Obama is right to examine the general's calculations, but it would make
no sense to try a middle path and approve, say, a troop increase of 20,000. That
would just put more Americans in harm's way without giving McChrystal the
resources he says he needs. This game's been going on for eight years. It's time
to raise or fold.

Obama is at the key juncture: in or out. If he ratifies the
counterinsurgency strategy and approves a troop increase, he'll be committing
the United States to see the project through to its end. Advisers say the
president's goals for "fixing" Afghanistan are realistic, even modest. To me,
however, the whole enterprise looks unrealistic and immodest.

We invaded Afghanistan to ensure that the country could never again be
used to launch attacks against the United States. That mission is accomplished,
and our only goal should be making sure it stays accomplished -- whether the
place is run by Hamid Karzai or the Taliban. The counterinsurgency campaign that
Obama is contemplating looks like a step onto the slipperiest slope imaginable.
It doesn't matter whether the step is tentative or bold.

Sometimes a "war president" has to decide to start bringing the troops
home. That's what Obama must do.

Nice sentiments, Gene, and I agree with you. But if Obama was thinking about 'bringing the troops home', he sure picked the wrong advisors. Clinton, Holbrooke, Jones, Gates, the young know-it-alls from the Center for a New American Security--each and every one liberal international interventionist hawks. Not to speak of the omniscent, omnipotent CIA. (The only sensible one seems to be Joe Biden--imagine that!)

These forces for 'saving the world' through our military engagement and nation building will have their way. All very noble...and very foolish.