Decision Next Week on Troop Surge to Afghanistan

The Obama Administration will announce his troop surge strategy to Afghanistan next week. Whatever strategy emerges next week this will be his and no one else; he owns this now! In March, the president made a strategic mistake by announcing a strategy that was not thought out, but really only articulated in broad concepts. There was no detailed thought out strategy put forward by the administration on the change of objectives from the previous administrations efforts in Afghanistan.

In fairness to the Administration the president inherited a war in Afghanistan from the Bush Administration who failed to provide a strategy in Afghanistan, nor did they have any effective civil-military plan, failed to coordinate with our NATO allies and administered ineffectively the international aid. Had the Bush Administration put together a viable coherent strategy for Afghanistan we may not be in this situation today.

With all that said, the President must stop re-visiting the past on what the Bush Administration failed to do in Afghanistan and what he failed to articulate in March by rushing into a strategy that was not fully thought out. His strategy has to have a comprehensive counterinsurgency strategy for Afghanistan at the same time address the deteriorating situation in Pakistan.

The president must use all his powers of persuasion to gain the support of congress and most importantly the American people who have become skeptical of continued operations in Afghanistan. Partisan politics cannot be part of the equation as the stakes are too high for America to fail. Any failure on our part will only embolden Islamic extremism in the region and further destabilize the Central Asian region to our detriment.

When the president addresses the nation next week is other audience will be our NATO allies as they will watching and listening to his remarks. The president will have to convince our European allies to send more forces to Afghanistan and will have to be convinced they we have staying power. America’s track record is very thin in this respect.

The presidents has to come out forceful and decisively on what are the short term and long term strategy of our efforts and not paint them in broad rosy terms. The path ahead will be challenging and at times hard in terms in personal and material, but failure will have catastrophic consequence for the nation and the world.

Whatever strategy the president articulates to the nation next week he has to have the conviction to see it through and not buckle under to political pressure when the going gets tough.

The stakes are too high for us and the world!