An architect of the Afghan strategy speaks up. Read it all, but this is key to expose the facile thinking of Sen. Kerry and dufus Joe Biden, and our President who seems incapable of making a decision not tinged with rank partisan opportunism, even as the lives of our troops hang in the balance and we are threatened with terrorists back in Chicago. James Shinn, WSJ:
Replacing the hard work of counterinsurgency and nation-building with Predator drones and Special Operations defies geography and common sense. A Predator has a range of 400 miles: It is 600 miles from Pakistan's Waziristan region to the Arabian Sea.
From where are you going to fly the drones? What intelligence will be available to guide the drones or special ops if we abandon Kabul and Islamabad to fight on their own?
A "regional" solution that convinces India, Pakistan and Iran (among others) that their interests are better served by a stable Afghanistan than by backing proxy forces there is a laudable undertaking. But it would take years of patient diplomacy, in which the terms and pace of NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan will be the central item of negotiation. Fat chance of striking a deal if you're already gone.
Will the president choose to be a strong horse or a weak one? If you choose to lose, Barack Obama, the decision will haunt you--because these people will not go away unless they are decisively defeated.
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