McIntyre’s Take on Obama’s West Point Afghanistan Surge: Right Strategy, Wrong Message”
(Editor’s Note: This story was originally headlined “The Speech,” but I am at a blogging conference, and I’m told I need to have all the key words in the headline, so I changed it to “McIntyre’s Take on Obama’s West Point Afghanistan Surge: Right Strategy, Wrong Message.”)
UPDATE: Defense Secretary Gates is already hedging on the withdrawal date, in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee:
“We’re not just going to throw these guys in the swimming pool and walk away. “It will be based on conditions on the ground but at the same time… we have to build a fire under them frankly to get them to do the kind of recruitment and retention that allows us to make this transition.”
Gates said the administration will conduct a “thorough review” in December 2010, and “if it appears that the strategy is not working and that we will not be able to transition in July 2011 then we will take a hard look at the strategy itself.”
President Barack Obama’s address outlining his strategy for success in Afghanistan had all the flavor of a halftime speech in which the coach exhorts his team to do just enough to win, but no more.
“I refuse to set goals that go beyond our responsibility, our means, or our interests,” intoned the President last night.
Those are not words that inspire.
The president conveyed his ambivalence about the mission and the prospects for success, especially when he declared his intent to begin pulling U.S. troops out in July 2011, regardless of where things stand.
“It must be clear that Afghans will have to take responsibility for their security and that America has no interest in fighting an endless war in Afghanistan.”
Again the message that come through is that America is leaving in 18 months. That may be a realistic goal. But telegraphing it so clearly sends the wrong message… to our troops, our partners, and our enemies. The Taliban now know just how long they have to go to ground, until the Americans begin packing up.
While Obama gave his Afghanistan commander, Gen. Stan McChrystal, most — but not all of the troops he asked for — he effectively rejected McChrystal’s preferred strategy of long-term a nation-building that would take up to a decade to turn Afghanistan into a working semi-democracy with a credible central government and functioning institutions.
The price, concluded President Obama, was just too high. “Our troop commitment in Afghanistan cannot be open– ended,” said Mr. Obama, “because the nation that I’m most interested in building is our own.”
Okay — so this falls short of the soaring rhetoric that galvanized the nation behind the difficult but worth task.
The irony is that President Obama may be right. The strategy he has settled on, even with its limitations and reservations, may be the best of bad options.
But the speech fell short of making the case.
Bottom line: Right strategy, wrong message.
(polls)
Tags: Afghanistan, Obama, Strategy
