As the cold and snow gets ready to come, there is a real sense that
it’s the last best time to turn the tide against the militants. We
know from today’s discussion at the White House that there is no plan
to remove troops from Afghanistan, where this year President Obama has
already added 21,000 soldiers. Even Vice-President Biden’s
recommendation of a surgical approach against Al-Qaeda does not involve
a draw down. Perhaps the number will not be 40,000 troops, but I find
it hard to think that there won’t be some escalation. We might have
been there for eight years, but the war for the hearts and minds of
Afghanistan only began this year.
You know, the editors of The Poor Man were the ones who said, about Iraq, that once you fuck the dog, the dog is fucked. It can’t be unfucked. You can not fuck the dog again, you can resolve to never fuck any dog anywhere ever for the rest of your life, but you can’t unfuck that particular dog in that particular instance. I don’t know how you screw up a war, and then un-screw it up. Especially since literally no one including all the Republicans getting ready to hang this war around Obama’s neck can define for America what winning looks like.
No violence? None at all? “Acceptable” levels? How many dead kids are acceptable? No Taliban? We didn’t give a damn about the Taliban and the plight of women in Afghanistan until 9/11 and then we only wanted some shit to get blowed up, so don’t tell me this is about the Taliban. The destruction of Al Qaeda? How on earth … Some kind of sicko math where only X suicide bombings means everybody can come home? If anyone out there has an answer to this I’d love to hear it because right now winning seems to mean … good stuff, and I don’t know what signs we’re looking for.
And from reading about the meeting it’s pretty clear I’m not the only one confused:
“There
were a number of people who spoke out with a lot of caution about
getting in deeper and what the endpoint is,” Mr. Levin said in an
interview. Mr. Levin, who promoted accelerated training of Afghan
forces, then met alone with Mr. Obama to expand on his views.Others
shared their skepticism in interviews. “Clearly, there is hesitancy
about the prospect of sending 40,000 more troops,” said RepresentativeNita M. Lowey, Democrat of New York.SenatorJohn Kerry,
chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said after the meeting
that “it would be irresponsible” to send more troops until it became
clear “what is possible in Afghanistan.”
A.