Whither Afghanistan?

Submitted by William Schirano on September 16, 2009 - 4:08pm
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Whither Afghanistan?

A great debate has finally begun over our future presence in Afghanistan. As I’ve alluded to previously, Afghanistan, for the last seven years, has been the neglected…dare I say, forgotten war next to Iraq.
 
Under President Obama, however, that calculus is beginning to change--and quite possibly at the right time--as Iraq begins a predictable disintegration, thanks in large part to an utter unwillingness to depart from its historic tribal and ethnic rivalries.
 
Though the President is correct to shift the attention back to Afghanistan, he has to this point repeated many of his predecessor’s mistakes -- the most prominent of which is a reluctance to define what victory in Afghanistan ought to look like.
 
Unlike our initial efforts in Iraq, we should have no illusions about the future of Afghanistan. More so than Iraq, Afghanistan is an area of the world that has been immune to the effects of time and the progress that should accompany its passage. As one Dutch commander described it in a compelling article by George Will, “walking through the region is ‘like walking through the Old Testament.’”
 
With this reality in mind, we need to spend less time worrying about “rebuilding” a nation that was never built, and instead focus on developing a strategy that prevents a terrorist organization from devising and successfully executing a strategy to kill Americans.
 
Victory need only be that simple: Ensure that Afghanistan is not a threat to the United States. Return to the basics, and stop needlessly complicating our objectives.
 
Not only will such an approach save us precious lives and money in the future, it will supply us with a goal that is actually achievable--something that has been dreadfully lacking for the previous six years in Iraq.
 
As the chorus grows to abandon our efforts in Afghanistan, it is important to reflect upon the reasons why we entered this war in the first place. Can we honestly say, today, that Afghanistan no longer poses a threat to U.S. national security?
 
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