Some Things Just Aren’t Funny | Newsweek Scope

Deployments and Diplomacy
Henry Kissinger 10/3/2009 12:00:00 AM
The request for additional forces by the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, poses cruel dilemmas for President Obama. If he refuses the recommendation and General McChrystal's argument that his forces are inadequate for the mission, Obama will be blamed for the dramatic consequences. If he accepts the recommendation, his opponents may come to describe it, at least in part, as Obama's war. If he compromises, he may fall between all stools—too little to make progress, too much to still controversy. And he must make the choice on the basis of assessments he cannot prove when he makes them.
Bundy’s Blunders
Jonathan Alter 10/3/2009 12:00:00 AM
We're told that this month's marathon policy meetings about Afghanistan mark a fateful moment in the Obama presidency—a fork in the road. But that's only true if the president sharply escalates the number of U.S. ground forces. As everyone learned the hard way in Iraq, getting out is a helluva lot harder than getting in. If, by contrast, Obama chooses to limit U.S. involvement to fighting Al Qaeda, and stops short of a commitment to protect civilians from the Taliban, he has more options for a midcourse correction. That wouldn't be as fateful. (Click here to follow Jonathan Alter)
Know Thy Enemy. And Then Defeat Him.
Jon Meacham 9/26/2009 12:00:00 AM
For several weeks now—beginning in the last days of August—people inside the Obama administration, the military, and the diplomatic community have been unusually unanimous on the subject of Afghanistan. Their refrain: we do not know what is going to happen; no one knows what is going to happen. Then they pause, and, in case we missed the point, say: we do not know what is going to happen.
How Long Was the Hundred Years’ War?
9/26/2009 12:00:00 AM
One hundred seventeen years, to be precise. And you thought the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan were never-ending—although at this rate, they might be. Iraq has now outlasted World War II, while in March Afghanistan will edge out Vietnam as the longest American war ever.
AMERICA AND ITS IMAGE
Where Bush Was Right
David Frum 12/31/2008 12:00:00 AM
Yet there are some things the next president shouldn't change. George W. Bush hasn't gotten much good press in recent years, but he's accomplished some important things that the next president would do well to preserve and extend.
THE MIDDLE EAST
Winning In Afghanistan
Andrew J. Bacevich 12/31/2008 12:00:00 AM
The allied campaign in Afghanistan is now entering its eighth year. The operation was launched with expectations of a quick, decisive victory but has failed to accomplish that objective. Granted, the diversion of resources to the misguided war in Iraq has forced commanders in Afghanistan to make do with less. Yet that doesn't explain the lack of progress. The real problem is that Washington has misunderstood the nature of the challengeAfghanistan poses and misread America's interests there.