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Winning In Afghanistan

Victory there won't look like you think. Time to get out and give up on nation building.

 

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In Afghanistan today, the United States and its allies are using the wrong means to vigorously pursue the wrong mission. Persisting on the present course—as both John McCain and Barack Obama have promised to do—will turn Operation Enduring Freedom into Operation Enduring Obligation. Afghanistan will become a sinkhole consuming resources neither the U.S. military nor the U.S. government can afford to waste. (Story continued below...)

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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.

One of history's enduring lessons is that Afghans don't appreciate it when outsiders tell them how to govern their affairs—just ask the British or the Soviets. U.S. success in overthrowing the Taliban seemed to suggest this lesson no longer applied, at least to Americans. That quickly proved an illusion.

In Iraq, toppling the old order was easy. Installing a new one to take its place has turned out to be infinitely harder.

Yet the challenges of pacifying Afghanistan dwarf those posed by Iraq. Afghanistan is a much bigger country—nearly the size of Texas—and has a larger population that's just as fractious. Moreover, unlike Iraq, Afghanistan possesses almost none of the prerequisites of modernity; its literacy rate, for example, is 28 percent, barely a third of Iraq's. In terms of effectiveness and legitimacy, the government in Kabul lags well behind Baghdad—not exactly a lofty standard. Apart from opium, Afghans produce almost nothing the world wants. While liberating Iraq may have seriously reduced the reservoir of U.S. power, fixing Afghanistan would drain it altogether.

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Member Comments

  • Posted By: 82nd airborne @ 08/18/2009 6:05:40 PM

    why would your azz say some crazy *** like that you people kill me man me and my brothers and sisters are here getting boom at and losing sleep and our life for you and you say crazy things to pise us off but there are good people here just like in the us but also bad like in the us so why boom and kill people that would peace just as bad as we do and trust if you was here you wouldn't be saying that cause you set at home and you read whats going on look crazy the news talk you what they want you to hear maybe you should join and come see for yourself but till then you and these other people on here try be a help to us then shiting on us all the time like get our address and send things like cards something that gets our mine off the bad over here then us getin on there to see whos helping and we see people shiting on us.

  • Posted By: 82nd airborne @ 08/18/2009 5:56:38 PM

    look im at war in afghanistan and i think that people like you make me and my brothers and sisters sick when we are of here doing what we do bestg and then we have to look on here and see people like you who really don't know what they are talking about cause they see what the news is saying and go off the he say and she say but we know that were are over losing soldiers but this is what we all sign up to do and it would make things better if you people stop downing us and starte saying thank you cause if yoiu dont know it or not we are not coming home just cause you people think its a wast of time we come home when we have done the time crazy so try to do more thinking before you say bullshit.

  • Posted By: Nath @ 08/15/2009 6:06:10 AM

    bull *** and myth - if US want they can poowder every rock in there - they are just playing with the rat before the killing.

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