The Washington Post Ed Board Should Read the AMCW Posted by Michael Cohen

According to the Washington Post:

President Obama seems to have forgotten his own arguments for a counterinsurgency campaign.

Well actually, if you read the President's speech of March 27th he does not use the word counter-insurgency once in the address. The Post's editorial today conveniently ignores the fact that the President also said this on March 27th:

We are not in Afghanistan to control that country or to dictate its future. We are in Afghanistan to confront a common enemy that threatens the United States, our friends and allies, and the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan who have suffered the most at the hands of violent extremists. So I want the American people to understand that we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future. That is the goal that must be achieved.

And as has been chronicled here for now several months, the mission that Obama described in March has been expanded significantly - some might even call it mission creep. The Post acts like Obama announced a counter-insurgency strategy back then and is now backing away from it. This simply isn't accurate.

Now in fairness to the Post, the President's March 27th speech was full of contradictions and ambiguities. But it's also clear that the Pentagon and in particular General McChrystal has run with a COIN strategy that is even more robust then what the President announced. What exactly is the problem with reassessing that strategy? Why would the Post be opposed to the President making sure we have the right political and military strategy in place, particularly as McChrystal is preparing to ask for more troops to be sent to Afghanistan?

This isn't "wavering." This is what mature leaders do in matters of war and peace; they constantly reassess and weighs costs versus benefits. The Post actually has the chutzpah to argue that "keeping faith with that goal (promoting a more accountable and capable Afghan government) will require more troops, more resources and years of patience. Yet to break with it would both dishonor and endanger this country." Well that's one view, but is the Post ed board completely ignorant of the fact that the Afghan government has not shown itself to be accountable or capable at all?

Here's what would be dishonorable: pursuing a failed policy in the face of facts on the ground that suggest it might not succeed. But considering the Post's incessant cheerleading for more troops to be sent into harm's way; first in Iraq and now in Afghanistan I suppose we shouldn't be surprised they don't get that.

Comments

[Juan]

When Obama urges quick movement on Health Care, that's being decisive. When he takes months to ponder his navel over following up on his statement that this is "a war of necessity," that's being prudent.

Waffles, anyone?

Michael, you are an amazing, brilliant, erudite man. Your intellectual honesty and consistency of logic are absolutely stunning.

I'm lying. You're an idiot. When you make statements about Afghanistan, it sounds like the pop psychology of Dr Phil. The depth of your knowledge about what it's like here, for anyone, is that of a puddle after a light rain. I can't believe that you have the nerve to open your mouth, being so lightly educated on the subject you speak about. I would think that a man would know better than to shoot his mouth off so loudly and so often about a subject about which he clearly knows so little. I have spent months on the ground in Afghanistan. I am here right now. McChrystal's report is nothing new to me at all. I live it. People like you are dangerous in that some back home may actually think you have a clue. To someone who has spent lots of time here, I can tell that you don't.

Find something that you actually know something about to write about.

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