Endurance Test
By ROGER COHEN
NYT
NEW YORK — When it comes to Afghanistan, hawks back Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s request for 40,000 or more troops while doves try to parse the distinctions between the Taliban and Al Qaeda to justify rejecting his view and eventually heading for the exit. Right?
No, wrong. I’m a hawk on Afghanistan but for that reason I’m skeptical of a major troop surge because it might bolster the view that there’s a quick fix for a country that’s the fifth poorest in the world, enjoys life expectancy of 44, and has been lacerated by three decades of war. In Afghanistan, 30 years of fighting now demand 30 years of partnership from the United States.
The troop numbers game, in which President Obama looks wobbly, is in fact a distraction. Numbers matter less than endurance, details less than overall design. A word that needs to pass Obama’s lips soon is just that: “endurance.” Afghanistan, as he has said and must not unsay, is the “necessary war.”
A U.S. official now serving in southern Helmand Province told me: “A big bang will weaken our endurance ability. People will say, O.K., with 40,000 more troops things should change overnight. We need to sustain at the lowest level that gets the partnering done.”
(More here.)
NYT
NEW YORK — When it comes to Afghanistan, hawks back Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s request for 40,000 or more troops while doves try to parse the distinctions between the Taliban and Al Qaeda to justify rejecting his view and eventually heading for the exit. Right?
No, wrong. I’m a hawk on Afghanistan but for that reason I’m skeptical of a major troop surge because it might bolster the view that there’s a quick fix for a country that’s the fifth poorest in the world, enjoys life expectancy of 44, and has been lacerated by three decades of war. In Afghanistan, 30 years of fighting now demand 30 years of partnership from the United States.
The troop numbers game, in which President Obama looks wobbly, is in fact a distraction. Numbers matter less than endurance, details less than overall design. A word that needs to pass Obama’s lips soon is just that: “endurance.” Afghanistan, as he has said and must not unsay, is the “necessary war.”
A U.S. official now serving in southern Helmand Province told me: “A big bang will weaken our endurance ability. People will say, O.K., with 40,000 more troops things should change overnight. We need to sustain at the lowest level that gets the partnering done.”
(More here.)
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