Except the military.

Editor,

The sad fact of the matter is that Cheney/Rumsfeld blew their Afghan war by invading with no plan for, not even a thought of, pacifying and reconstructing the country after the Taliban were routed. Just as in Iraq, they won the military engagement and failed utterly to follow up politically. Chaos therefore reigned. Now there is civil war in Afghanistan, and Mr. Obama is left with no good options. Leaving defeated now is as good as leaving defeated 2 years from now. And staying forever, in addition to destroying the American military if not our nation entirely, is no solution.

Add to this the divided loyalties of the Pakistani military, with their absurd paranoia about India's influence in Afghanistan and their perennial reliance on religious fanatics to destabilize Kashmir and their support for the Taliban, and Obama's project becomes more untenable. What can he do to change this? Nothing is the answer.

And what can he do about rich Saudi and United Arab Emirate supporters of jihadists in Central Asia and beyond? Mr. Obama is naive enough to believe Republicans will join him in "post-partisianship." Does he think Wahhabists are going to join him in his fight against al Qaeda?

Cheney/Rumsfeld did not study the Allied occupation of Germany after WWII or the American occupation of Japan. And if they did, they thumbed their noses at history because bombs are cheap and politics is expensive. I don't think the American public or the American press fully appreciate the extent of the failure of President Obama's predecessors. They have left him with no good options. He is listening to deluded military nuts. He should kick them out of his office, bring the troops home now, and think seriously about how to proceed using every instrument at his disposal except the military.

re: "Obama’s Logic Is No Match for Afghanistan" (12/6/2009)