In announcing an escalation in Afghanistan, the president just took ownership of a conflict that will not end soon.
Afghanistan just became Obama’s war.
He owns it now.
The same way Johnson came to own Vietnam and Bush will always own Iraq.
Obama put his presidential signature on the war in Afghanistan Friday with his announcement of a fundamental shift in strategy, a surge of more than 21,000 troops and a widening of the theater to include Pakistan.
President Obama said he was taking the bold initiative in recognition of the fact that an “increasingly perilous” situation needed to be addressed.
He said point blank that the Al Qaeda leadership was hiding out in Pakistan and “actively planning attacks on the United States.”
He said an extra 4,000 US troops and advisers would train the Afghan army and police and augment the 17,000 additional troops he had already committed over the summer.
The increased military presence will be accompanied by billions of dollars in aid. Obama said that would be delivered based on benchmarks and tough scrutiny by a new Inspector General who will attempt to weed out corruption in a region overgrown with it.
Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Asif Ali Zardari both publicly welcomed the new strategy.
Some policy wonks had a few reservations. Stephen Biddle of the Council on Foreign Relations applauded the initiative for addressing a dangerous “lack of focus” on Afghanistan by the Bush administration. But he also pointed out that counterinsurgency is “resource intensive and very expensive.”
“I’m afraid this will be a down payment” on a much larger and more expensive engagement, he said.
Just after Obama’s speech, Senator John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) told GlobalPost’s Jack Farrell that he supported the initiative.
The Afghan people "do not want the Taliban" and so we "have to give them something to hold on to," said Kerry, who will be coauthoring legislation to approve aid for Pakistan as part of the initiative.
When asked about escalation concerns, Kerry said he believes that "this is a low enough footprint” and “not a whole new military commitment.”
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/worldview/090327/obamas-war
