Time to Leave Afghanistan

So then we agree, Time to leave Afghanistan. Progress... Of course the reaction to the burning is horrific.

What a great lesson about getting involved in places where we barely understand the facts on the ground. I understand why we are there, but the time to leave as long passed. Chalk another one up to civilian commanders totally snafuing a military effort. For all the talk about Obama's hatred of the military, he has approved a highly accelerated and effective drone effort across the horn of Africa. Against the advice of many advisors, your friend Biden for example; Obama green lighted the Bin Laden maneuver. By way of contrast, Bush, Rumsfeld Cheney and that whole clique completely (mis)managed the Iraq and Afghanistan efforts from the White House and Pentagon and in my view in Iraq  they took what at least could have been an effective (though totally unneeded and unwarranted) effort in Iraq and turned it into a clusterf***. 

Yes, this is coming from a "leftist" bla, bla, bla, but there are plenty of American generals that feel the same way. The reason that Iraq turned into such a sustained and tragic situation was not just the wildly misunderstood circumstances on the ground. Rumsfeld with his small and mobile ideology, (as opposed to Powell's doctrine of overwhelming force) dug the US forces into a hole that they were digging out of until they left at the current President's command a few weeks ago. In addition, domestic American political considerations (especially the Bush teams need to fire up conservatives like you) was an additional major cause for the disaster in Iraq. Finally, the appointed civilian commanders, especially Paul Bremer, caused the real calamity. In Vietnam the US entered with a large force, but met a larger force and left in stalemate verging on loss. The US had superior firepower (nukes) but using them presented a cost that even Nixon would not pay. This was not the case in Iraq where The Powell doctrine if executed likely would have carried the day. In Iraq the tragic results we saw were arrived at by virtue of the plan the civilian commanders developed. And as we know even among military leadership outside voices were not welcome. American turned on Bush because the cost of the war was too high and because they came to realize he lied to get the US in, but the military disaster there came about as a result of the way Bush and his team tried to run it as well as the poor tactics employed in some particular hot spots by a handful of generals which escalated a civil war into a complete insurrection. Petraeus in the theatre almost from the start, and always one of the Best and The Brightest save the country's (and Bush’s cookies). As ex military I assume you know that. And if you don't you should. Read Thomas Ricks "Fiasco".  Ricks is a Pulitzer Prize winning former reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. He lectures widely to the military and is a member of Harvard University's Senior Advisory Council on the Project on U.S. Civil-Military Relations. He has reported on military activities in Somalia, Haiti, Korea, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Kuwait, Turkey, Afghanistan, and Iraq. In addition Fiasco Ricks also wrote The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008, and Making the Corps. He is no enemy of the military and he has been around. I always marvel at conservatives that call Obama dangerous. After the twin military failures of Iraq and Afghanistan I continue to marvel at the Armageddon theories pushed on the current president. It should also be remembered that the failure and diversion of troops in Iraq led to a far less robust effort in Afghanistan, which no doubt extended the tragic loss and failure to complete that mission. Based on the silence about the real and spectacular failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, those on the right who fail to address them, while beating a paranoid drum of impending failure about Obama’s military philosophy and actions have zero credibility in this dialogue. What parades as sober assessment of military scenarios is nothing less than hack political analysis from people with no objectivity or credibility.  It is political noise and nothing more. If I was a Republican I would stick with the economy.