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Hard, Hard All The Time, But Doable

In an open letter to the Brits, apparently designed to encourage and reassure, Gen. David Petraeus weighs in on Afghanistan. Times of London: 

In addition to our military operations we are helping the Afghan Government to combat the corruption that has undermined the legitimacy of certain Afghan institutions. We are also working hard to accelerate the development of the Afghan security forces. And we are working to disrupt narcotics trafficking by promoting agricultural alternatives and developing the infrastructure to help Afghan farmers to get their products to market.

But we need to be realistic in recognising that the campaign will require a sustained, substantial commitment. Many tough tasks loom before us — including resolution of the way ahead after the recent election, which obviously has been marred by allegations of fraud. The challenges in Afghanistan clearly are significant. But the stakes are high. And, while the situation unquestionably is, as General McChrystal has observed, serious, the mission is, as he has affirmed, still doable. In truth, it is, I think, accurate to observe that, as in Iraq in 2007, everything in Afghanistan is hard, and it is hard all the time.

Iran constitutes the main state-based threat to stability in the region. The impact of its malign activities and harsh rhetoric are felt throughout the Arabian Peninsula, making it, ironically, the best recruiter with prospective partners. We now have eight Patriot missile batteries spread across countries on the western side of the Gulf, where two years ago we had far, far fewer.

He needs to write a letter like that to the United States. CC it to the White House and Congress. Losing the Brits would be bad enough. If we lose the Americans we’re screwed. 

Re Afghanistan, we are weirdly now back in our 2006 Iraqspace. It’s almost as if the last two years and the surge didn’t happen. Brits are wavering, want out. Congress and the American people are wavering, want out. Commentators are waffling, wringing their hands, switching sides, advocating an exit. They all used to think this war made sense, and even loudly proclaimed it was the war that ought to be fought. Turns out, for a lot of them, that was just an excuse to bash Bush. Now they can’t see how it works. They can’t see the point. They don’t think it can and claim it doesn’t need to be done. Just leave, and do stand-off counter-terrorism ops. The only thing that’s different is that we don’t have a George Bush in the White House or a Tony Blair at No. 10 Downing Street any more. Which is to say … and I’d be glad to be proven wrong on this … we don’t have anyone with the backbone, political smarts or moral fiber for the tough job ahead.

(Don’t think George Bush had political smarts? Remember, with the notable exception of that ill-considered bi-partisan, bi-partisanly rejected immigration bill … you could call it his health care reform … he won his battles, often against considerable odds.)

Note Petraeus’ reference to Iran. As a side note, Afghanistan is not just about al-Qaeda and the Taliban. No war is ever just about one thing. This one, like Iraq, is also about Iran. It is also about our allies. All of whom, today, are mulling at what we just did to our eastern European allies.

Minor point, hate to get PC about it, but the phrasing of this graph is ill-considered:

The region under my command consists of 20 countries, from Egypt in the west to Pakistan in the east, and from Kazakhstan in the north to Yemen and the waters off Somalia to the south. This region sits astride the traditional land of former empires and the pull of ancient tensions can still be felt.

Factually accurate but comes off a tad imperial sounding. About half of Petraeus’ Brit readers just spat out their fried bread, or whatever they were having for breakfast.

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Topics: Afghanistan,military

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:00 am Comments (2) on Friday, September 18, 2009

2 Responses to “Hard, Hard All The Time, But Doable”

1. » Daily Links II – 09/18/09 NoisyRoom.net: Where liberty dwells, there is my country… Says:
   September 18th, 2009 at 8:06 pm

   [...] Hard, Hard All The Time, But Doable [...]

2. GHS159 Says:
   September 18th, 2009 at 8:18 pm

   I’m not sure that the “former empires” refer to the British. He might be thinking much further back, as the people who live in these countries often tend to do.

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