When the president fired General Stanley McChrystal last week, many asked what the implications were for the US effort in Afghanistan? The answer from most quarters is—not much. That is cold comfort for Americans who care about the future security of their nation. While Obama was well within in his rights to swap out generals, last week was a big disappoint because he failed to acknowledge that his strategy is still seriously flawed.
At a press conference President Obama said of his Afghanistan withdrawal timeline, “We didn’t say we’d be switching off the lights and closing the door behind us. We said we’d begin a transition phase that would allow the Afghan government to take more and more responsibility.” If the start date for the withdrawal is not such a big deal after all, then why did the President announce one to begin with? The answer is that it was for domestic political consumption—an implicit promise to his political supporters that Afghanistan would be off the table by the time it came to gear up for the 2012 presidential campaign.
Winning in Afghanistan is in the vital interests of the United States. The president was dead wrong to play politics with war policy.
To make matters worse, the timeline is negatively impacting our ability to win the war. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, from villages to terrorist hideouts, the message was that Americans lack the stomach to stick it out till the job is done. Why would the Pakistani Taliban dispatch a terrorist to kill Americans in Times Square if they didn’t think they could break the back of American resolve?
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