George F. Will, the elite conservative commentator, is calling for U.S. ground troops to leave Afghanistan in his latest column.
“[F]orces should be substantially reduced to serve a comprehensively revised policy: America should do only what can be done from offshore, using intelligence, drones, cruise missiles, airstrikes and small, potent special forces units, concentrating on the porous 1,500-mile border with Pakistan, a nation that actually matters,” Will writes.
[…]
Will’s prescription – in which he recalls Bismarck’s decision to halt German forces short of Paris in 1870 – seems certain to split Republicans. He is a favorite of fiscal conservatives. The more hawkish right can be expected to attack his conclusion as foolhardy, short-sighted and naïve, potentially making the U.S. more vulnerable to terrorist attack.
Ya think this might be a tad controversial?
Why don’t we talk to some Russian veterans. You don’t win insurgencies without overwhelming force and major collateral damage. Then at best to put it off a generation because of so much hatred. Damn this reminds be of Colonial British forces marching in two centuries ago. We’re still living with that legacy.
Occupying foreign lands by paying mercenaries to do so is one of the last gasps of a dying super power. Just before that is fighting those same wars without the general support of a volunteer army. I thought we were getting pretty close to the first with the advent, but always a bit unknown, of Blackwater.
Seems the support of volunteer army is being substituted by use of high tech. The populace is somnambulant when bled thru the pocketbook, but the result will be the same.
Obama surprises me. Coming out against the Iraq war made him look like he cared about America but its looking like a pure political calculation===otherwise how can you explain increasing the troops in Afghanistan? The same anti-war sensibility should have controlled, if that was what he was working from.
I’m not against building civilizations. I would just do it with more world support in areas more likely for it to catch on.
We should use our military like a gang-bang on leave. In and out quickly, don’t hang around for the boyfriends to show up. I guess what the troops know is hard to scale up.
Well, George Will is a throwback to a thoughtful Republican party that no longer exist. By the end of the week, he’ll be classified as a liberal.
The Afghans defeated Alexander the Great, they defeated the British Empire (twice), they defeated the Soviet Union. They don’t like foreigners in their country telling them what to do and they have always fought as hard as they can to throw them out. What reason is there to think that this time will be any different?
Obomba ran on a platform saying whatever anyone wanted to hear in order to get elected and then back on almost everything he said he would do. He did get the kids a dog albeit not from a shelter like he said but hey, the kids have a dog.
Now he stays in Afghanistan and increases troops. I don’t recall him saying anything about leaving there but he did say he would pull out of Iraq and he is working towards that but I really didn’t give a shit what he said before the election anyway.
On this one I happen to agree with Will, pull out and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
Until the people want to be part of the 20th century let it stay a shithole run by the Taliban.
#2 and #5 Why are you surprised with Obama sending more troops to Afghanistan. It’s what he ran on. He said that Iraq was a mistake and taking resources from the real war on terror which is in Afghanistan.
He didn’t run on a anti-war message. He ran on a Anti-Iraq war message. If ran a pure Anti-war message he would never have gotten elected.
#3, By the end of the week, he’ll be classified as a liberal.
Nope, a wingnut.
#5, yep.
#6–Jetfire==excellent question. I guess I agreed with him and therefore hallucinated/hoped he agreed with me. I think he was just criticizing Iraq but dancing to avoid the “no backbone liberal” label so he was showing he was no pacifist. But I was still hoping, no longer now, that he was actually rational and would not bleed America in foreign misadventures.
Get your troops in and out. Done with it. Over time, threatening to do so should have desired outcomes at 1/100th the cost.
Without going back over the news reports at the time, I’ll say his position on Afghanistan was ambiguous as to his plans for future actions, but I could be wrong.
Excellent call out. Thank You.
While we are at it lets get out of the rest of the world as well. We can no longer support a world spanning military AND fund domestic priorities. Trying to do both is sheer folly.
Given that 9/11 was clearly a false flag attack by the US government on its own people, yeah we should get out of Afghanistan. There’s no reason to be there.
Another ‘Cut and Run’ conservative who’s words are only going to embolden the terrorist to attack America again.
All this could have easily been avoided had we turned our attention to drilling and refining our own oil. We have plenty you know.
So much that we could be selling our oil to the rest of the world instead of fighting wars to keep it flowing from the Middle East.
Sometimes we are our own worst enemy.
So he’s willing to criticize the war making of a Democratic President? Not a big surprise.
He’s right. You have to either escalate big, or wind down.
However, he says Pakistan is a big problem. If you want to handle Pakistan, you have to be in Afghanistan as well, otherwise, the soldiers who are in the border areas in Pakistan now and fighting in Afghanistan, will be in the border areas in Afghanistan and fighting in Pakistan.
Petraeus COIN strategy calls for 320,000 troops. Afghan forces are about 94000 now and will be at 225,000 within a few years.
So you would need 230,000 troops now, down to 180,000 next year, and 95,000 after that.
So you’re for nationalization of the oil industry then? Cause that’s the only way “our” oil will be unaffected by relative supply/demand from the rest of the world oil market.
We have a fair amount of oil, but not an overabundance. I doubt we could supply our own need (esp for the future); I know we cant do that and sell it too. We are 13th in proven oil reserves BTW.
#14-tcc3-I doubt we could supply our own need (esp for the future); I know we cant do that and sell it too.
Well, not with that attitude.
We are capable of far more than you might think if government would get out of the way.
#9 agreed. We cannot afford to be the worlds police force anymore.
Uhh, Dr. Dodd. Even minimal research will tell you that isn’t true. The US produces about 1/3 of our curent oil needs, we import 2/3rds of the oil we use. There is simply no way we can make up the deficit domestically.
Your statement, “All this could have easily been avoided had we turned our attention to drilling and refining our own oil. We have plenty you know. So much that we could be selling our oil to the rest of the world instead of fighting wars to keep it flowing from the Middle East.” has not been true since 1973. We have burned up most of our useable domestic oil reserves.
And if you are thinking about “shale oil”, forget about it. It would take a barrel and a half of oil to produce a barrel of oil from shale reserves. In other words shale oil is worthless, which is why nobody is bothering to even try.
Will, isn’t a practicing politician nor is he much of a strategist.
This is the problem with every U.S. military operation: how to get out without appearing like we’re giving up.
It’s especially tricky when there was either no real objective, or the reason was phoney. (i.e. WMDs, get Osama).
We can get out of Iraq now: claim that the Iraq government is in charge, then leave.
To get out of Afghanistan, just withdraw all regular U.S. forces. Then bomb the hell out of the Pakistan/Afghan border region until we can produce a corpse that we can claim is Osama.
#19 – what exactly is a “practicing politician” – does that mean someone who has learned how to lie which fully believing what he says is the truth? Or they are still “practicing” until they get good at it?
#18-ArianeB-The US produces about 1/3 of our current oil needs, we import 2/3rds of the oil we use.
We need to look no further than the religion of environmentalism and politics to explain why we are not “allowed” to drill… not “allowed” to prosper.
#22–Dodd==do you have a single link that reports even “possible” reserves of domestic oil? Even from disreputable sites? Failure to produce will indicate you are making shit up.
#17–Arianne==the analogy that we can and maybe even should fulfill is “The Worlds Fireman.”
#23-bobbo-do you have a single link that reports…
Sorry but no, I didn’t know this was going to be a written exam.
If it helps, the gulf is reported to be quite promising. So much so the Chinese jumped on it like a dog in heat. Alas our politicians stayed home and only licked themselves.
Why oh why are conservatives still meddling in affairs they no longer have a say in?
They got us into this mess on the first term and royally screwed things up on the second.
Now, they have some great ideas! Where’s my gun?
Dr Dodd, you focused on only part of my response. Are you for Government control of American oil and if not, how do you propose to isolate us from the world oil market?
Ok, let me get this straight, by getting out we keep sending in spec-ops, drones, cruise missiles and continue to gather intel. yepp’er
I shudder to say it, but I have to agree with Alf.
Obama should be impeached. As should have every president back to at least Herbert Hoover, after their first six month or so of molesting the Constitution.
And Bobbo has it partly right. Going in with a blitzkreig and getting out fast is not a bad strategy. Neutron bombing the entire Middle East is better.
What ever happened to turn it onto a radioactive wasteland?
What exactly does the loud mouth talking head George Will know, that makes him any sort of authority worth listening too?
But, #11 little bopeep, has it right.
“Another ‘Cut and Run’ conservative who’s words are only going to embolden the terrorist to attack America again.”
As typical the RePUCKaTons are living out their lies at America’s expense.
It’s hilarious what BUSH wannabes and Alfred1 followers are now saying about Afgahnistan. They supported the BUSH agenda then, why not now? Now they say cut and run because for them it’s just a RePUCKaTon political football and not what is good for America.
I guess it wasn’t enough that the Taliban enabled and supported Al-Qaeda in the September 11, 2001, WTC attack.
It seems the RePUCKaTons and BUSH never really wanted to kill or capture Osama bin Laden (How bin Laden got away) or eliminate the Taliban.
#32, Just another loud mouth. You didn’t have any problems preaching to me and booty-buddying up with Fido on another post so why would it make a difference here?
Put your money where your XXXL mouth is:
Would you let 10 strangers die to save your wife?