Eugene Robinson: Without a clear goal, we'll never win in Afghanistan

[bigtree]

8/5/2010

In Afghanistan, momentum has become a substitute for logic. We're not fighting because we have a clear set of achievable goals. We're at war, apparently, because we're at war.

No other conclusion can be drawn from the circular, contradictory, confusing statements that the war's commanders and supporters keep making. President Obama, in an interview with CBS taped last Friday, said it is "important for our national security to finish the job in Afghanistan." But as the war's deadliest month for U.S. troops came to an end, Obama was far from definitive about just what this job might be.

"Nobody thinks that Afghanistan is going to be a model Jeffersonian democracy," Obama said. "What we're looking to do is difficult — very difficult — but it's a fairly modest goal, which is: Don't allow terrorists to operate from this region. Don't allow them to create big training camps and to plan attacks against the U.S. homeland with impunity."

But if the war's aim is to eliminate the al-Qaeda base in Afghanistan from which the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were launched, that goal was accomplished long ago. There is no substantial al-Qaeda presence in the country anymore; the terrorist network's affiliates in places such as Yemen and Somalia are much more robust, and the leadership is believed to be hiding in Pakistan. What sense does it make to fight al-Qaeda where it used to be, rather than where it is now . . . ?


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[tularetom]

1. Without a clear goal how will we know when or if we've won?

Obama boxed himself in by supporting the Afghanistan war during the campaign. He did this so the repubs and their friends in the liberal media would not call him a wimp for opposing the war in Iraq. Since he can't admit this he's had to spend his entire term to date making up bogus rationalizations for continuing this clusterfuck. It's apparent to even the most obtuse among us.

Yet it takes a journalist like Robinson to point this out. What a tragedy it's taken so long.

[bigtree]

2. kudos to Mr. Robinson

. . . yet, this has been pointed out repeatedly by critics since the announcement of the policy and deployments. It's criticism which is catching on. We tripled the number of legislators in Congress opposing further funding without clarification and an end point. We need to keep hammering this.

[zipplewrath]

3. The purpose no one speaks of

They are stuck making rationalizations for the war, because there are purposes for the war that cannot be spoke publicly. I don't claim to know what they all are, but some of them assuredly involve concerns about Pakistan and the effect of having a Taliban dominated Afghanistan right next door. There are also probably concerns about the influence Iran will have in the region if we "leave".

Don't get me wrong, I don't defend the current war, and I don't think we are serving our interests, but it has always been difficult to discuss the war because no one will explain our actual goals for being there.

[suffragette]

4. Eugene Robinson nails it

K&R