Add George Will to those calling for a new strategy for Obama's war in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In a column entitled "Time to Get Out of Afghanistan," Will expands upon comments he made on ABC's "This Week" and argues we should reduce our forces in Afghanistan and "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."
The Will strategy comes a day after General Stanley McChrystal, the top US commander in Afghanistan, submitted a report that also calls for a new strategy in Afghanistan. According to the New York Times, McChrystal's report lays the groundwork for more troops and "would invest the United States more extensively in Afghanistan."
President Obama announced a new strategy for his war in Afghanistan and Pakistan at the end of March - less than six months ago. Can Obama sell another new, more intensive, Afghan strategy, while his leave Iraq by date certain policy continues to move closer to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in that theater of the struggle formerly known as the Global War On Terror?
Can Obama muster the public support or maintain Bush-like steadfastness absent public support? Last month a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll found a majority, 54%, now oppose the war in Afghanistan. That percentage is sure to rise as the numbers of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan continue to rise.
Antiwar groups have now turned against Obama's war and plan an autumn campaign against Obama.
How much longer will the Afghan war remain the Obama policy that Republicans like the most? How much longer will Republicans support Obama's war when they think about how wrong Obama was about the Iraq surge. Obama was among those who stridently opposed the surge and predicted its failure. When even Obama realized he was wrong about the surge, team Obama engaged in a silly effort to hide the evidence by erasing his criticism of the surge from the web.
How much longer will unrepentant supporters of the Global War On Terror like me continue to support Obama's war when Obama continues to back away from war on terror, insists on closing the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay without a clue as to where he will put the terrorists, gives the green light to political show trials of Bush administration officials and allows his government to investigate CIA operatives?
How much longer will you support Obama's war? Al Qaeda and the Taliban don't think it will be long enough for us to win.
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