As Mr. Obama nears the end of his review of American strategy in Afghanistan, the issue of how he will prod, cajole or bully Mr. Karzai into taking action on matters he has avoided for the past five years has been catapulted to the center of the discussion.
Administration officials and America’s European allies say that rampant corruption and the illegal drug trade in Afghanistan have fueled the resurgence of the Taliban, and that unless Mr. Karzai moves forcefully to tackle those issues, no amount of additional American troops will be able to turn the country around.
Yet many of Mr. Obama’s advisers said they had seen no evidence that Mr. Karzai would follow through on promises to crack down on corruption or the drug trade. Mr. Obama, who met with his advisers again on Wednesday, is said to be particularly skeptical of Mr. Karzai’s resolve.
And here lies the Achilles’ Heel of American ventures into counter-insurgency.
Its not enough that those with whom we side/whom we assist in counter-insurgency efforts fight alongside of us, they also MUST ‘be like us.’
How incredibly absurd and arrogant!
The presumption seems to be that we must not only defeat the enemy in Afghanistan, the Taliban and Al Quaeda, we must also culturally reform Afghanistan.
We tried this in South Vietnam and managed de-captitate its government and to totally confuse and de-moralize the South Vietnamese anti-communist/non-communist nationalist leadership.
History has a way of repeating itself and our politicians have a way of ignoring history’s lessons and repeating past mistakes.
Unless the Administration has some sort of ‘clear-minded insight’ into this situation, they should ‘stand clear’ and let the professionals evaluate the situation in Afghanistan and figure out courses of action for possible action by the President.
Just because the political leadership has the authority doesn’t mean that it has the wisdom or the skill sets to figure out what to do in Afghanistan.
How many advisors, that the President actually listens to, have ever been in a firefight at 25 to 100 yards and aimed and fired at the enemy’s muzzle flashes as they have also watched the enemy’s tracers pass by them like glowing green and red fuzzy snowballs?
It takes the wisdom gained by the ‘reality check’ of actual combat to be a competent military leader.