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City-Focused Afghan Plan Winning Support

Emerging strategy fuses McChrystal, Biden competing plans

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 28, 2009 6:36 AM CDT
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(Newser) – A plan one official describes as "McChrystal for the city, Biden for the country," is emerging as the administration continues to hammer out its Afghan strategy. The plan would concentrate US forces in population centers, while maintaining pressure on insurgents elsewhere with drone strikes and targeted attacks from special forces. The debate is no longer about whether to send more troops, but about how many to send, officials tell the New York Times.

The strategy, administration and military officials say, will prevent the return of al-Qaeda and sap the Taliban's strength while Afghan forces are trained to take over the mission. "We are not talking about surrendering the rest of the country to the Taliban,” stressed one senior official, although others argue that as a mostly indigenous insurgency largely motivated by local grievances, the Taliban will be impossible to wholly uproot.


The shadow of a US Army Black Hawk helicopter falls over a base during a mission over Helmand Province, Afghanistan, last week.
The shadow of a US Army Black Hawk helicopter falls over a base during a mission over Helmand Province, Afghanistan, last week.   (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
A US soldier patrols in Kabul, Afghanistan.
A US soldier patrols in Kabul, Afghanistan.   (Getty Images)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 4 comments
cochiserocks
Oct 29, 2009 12:20 PM CDT
I second that...
RogerMohajir
Oct 28, 2009 12:33 PM CDT
Occupation has often led to long-term stability: the British and Soviet empires of the 19th and 20th century respectively being the most recent examples. But the US is very squeamish about being an empire, and Afghanistan would be an unlikely part of our imperial ambitions if we had them. This latest plan is doomed to fail, for the reasons you site, especially the fact that there has been no stability in Afghanistan for them to return to. It doesn't mean, however, that we can't achieve our objective in Afghanistan (which I will take the Administration at its word is "to prevent the return of Al Qaeda"). But we have to stop trying to impose our idea of a central government driven "democracy" on a country that has never operated in that way. Obama and his advisers need to explore ways to achieve relative stasis within a dynamic (but rarely random) state of chaos. It's all right if Afghanistan reverts to being a fragmented and shifting amalgam of competing interests, as long as the condition doesn't provide a medium for Al Qaeda to thrive. But that would take a profound shift in perspective that is unlikely to come from the dinosaurs who advise Obama on foreign policy.
cochiserocks
Oct 28, 2009 11:41 AM CDT
The more they go into this, the more complex it becomes - is there actually any historical precedent for an occupation leading to long term stability - outside of Germany WWII? and anyway, they had a far more united culture and society before it all blew up - these guys seemed to have trouble before and it's just continuing on through. And yes, I know the history and yes, it is a lot to do with occupational forces, but my point is that a country which is so deeply fragmented and segmented, geographically, religiously, culturally and all the rest - isn't it a bit like trying to apply a band aid to massive gaping wound?
Politics • US • World

 
Afghanistan • Joe Biden • Taliban • US military • Afghanistan war • Afghanistan exit strategy • Stanley McChrystal

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