What will Obama do about Afghanistan? As always, he’s giving conflicting signs.
The good news is that he’s pushing back when the military comes to him with four variations on the theme of “more troops for victory”.
At a National Security Council meeting on Wednesday, however, Mr. Obama picked up on General Eikenberry’s arguments about growing Afghan dependence, according to a senior official. The president, he said, was far more assertive than in previous sessions, pressing his advisers about the wisdom of four proposals for adding troops. The change in his tone, from listening to challenging, was palpable, officials said.
No knock on the military mindset, but it’s not oriented toward facing reality, it’s oriented toward believing that victory can be won. As a result, when the ambassador to Afghanistan isn’t on board with the military view of Afghanistan, we’re not too surprised. Until we learn that the ambassador is not only a former lieutenant general who retired to take his current post, but was once the top American commander in Afghanistan.
Public disclosure of his views has heightened existing tensions between senior military officers and General Eikenberry, who left the military in April to become Mr. Obama's emissary. Several military officials complained bitterly that his latest cables were part of a skein of pessimistic and defeatist memos he has sent since taking over in Kabul.
Turns out retired General and current Ambassador Eikenberry is arguing that more troops will simply make the government of Afghanistan, already about as shaky as a standing government gets, even more dependent on American aid and strength, and thus even less stable.
The bad news is that the Obama Syndrome™ is already starting to kick in.
On Thursday, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said the president had not rejected any of the four options, but was weighing how to mix and match elements from each of them.“I would say it was more, how can we combine some of the best features of several of the options to maximum good effect?” Mr. Gates told reporters. A central focus in Mr. Obama’s deliberations, he said, was, “How do we signal resolve and at the same time signal to the Afghans as well as the American people that this is not an open-ended commitment?”
Or, put another way, how can we act like we’re going to stay forever when we’re talking with Afghans, while assuring Americans that we plan to leave posthaste? Classic, total classic.
