Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s trashing of his civilian colleagues was unprofessional and may cost him his job. If so, it will be a sad end to a fine career. But no general is indispensable. What is indispensable is that when taking America surging deeper into war in Afghanistan, President Obama has to be able to answer the most simple questions at a gut level: Do our interests merit such an escalation and do I have the allies to achieve victory? President Obama never had good answers for these questions, but he went ahead anyway. The ugly truth is that no one in the Obama White House wanted this Afghan surge. The only reason they proceeded was because no one knew how to get out of it — or had the courage to pull the plug. That is not a sufficient reason to take the country deeper into war in the most inhospitable terrain in the world. You know you’re in trouble when you’re in a war in which the only party whose objectives are clear, whose rhetoric is consistent and whose will to fight never seems to diminish is your enemy: the Taliban. More...
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McChrystal's firing is precipitating a reevaluation of America's mission in Afganistan. Why are we there? What are our objectives? Are our objectives realistic? The president has promised to begin our withdrawal next year but the war, the longest in America's history, is not going well. Remember what happened to the Soviet Union in Afganistan. We do not want their fate to be ours. We need to take this opportunity to pause and take a clear headed second look at our Afganistan policy.
John H. Armwood
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