AN UNTIMELY CONFLICT
The long, twilight struggle will go on at least another $30 billion in direct costs (about twice the GDP of Afghanistan).
Apparently, after seven years of trying, there is a chance that counter-insurgency doctrine might work. You don't say - 18 months more is all that is needed to "set conditions".
Strangely, given how badly Rumsfeld and his generals prosecuted a resource-starved mission in Afghanistan, that might actually be true, all except the 18 months part. But, you don't just get to press 'reset', like a video game. There are costs, perhaps insurmountable ones, of those seven years of clear-no-hold-no-build...
$30 billion to do what Bush-Cheney-Rice-Rumsfeld couldn't. The guy who was going to end conflict is, like Nixon, ordering the biggest step-up.
If it doesn't work, after a paltry 18 months, Obama has no political exit strategy, does he? He's not going to get rewarded for saying, "enough!", even less so if the CIA writes a reports that al-qaeda is undiminished in the region...
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
18 months, 30,000 troops, 30 billion dollars
