I want to hear two things:
First, how will we know when we are finished? Spare me analogies about Japan and Germany, we did not keep troops in either country much after 1950 in order to keep them under control. Troops were kept in both countries as part of the Cold War, not as part of the aftermath of the Second World War. The Korean War might be a closer analogy, but that depends on knowing that the Korean War technically never ended. What ended the hot war phase of the Korean War was an armistice, which is diplomatic-speak for "we agree to stop shooting at each other for now."
Second, how do we get there (other than "send in more troops and pray a lot")? There has to be a plan. The Iraq War "surge" was "send in a lot of troops to tamp down the Shi'a militias and buy off the Sunnis", a deal which may be falling apart as the Shi'a government does not want to have any truck with the Sunnis. Iraq will, by 2011, either have its civil war or it will be a Saddam-like police state, only with the Shi'a in charge.
Right now, the only plan I see for Afghanistan is "send in a lot more troops and try not to kill any more civilians", which is not much of a plan. The Afghan Army is largely non-enthusiastic about fighting and is probably riddled with Talib spies to boot. The Afghan police are writing new record books on corruption. The only difference between the Afghan government and the Cali cartel is that the Afghan government has a flag and an anthem.
So, what is the plan?
A blog by a "sucker" and a "loser" who served her country in the Navy.
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Slava Ukraini!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
1 comment:
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