Posts Tagged ‘Af-Pak Policy Review’

Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 3:35pm

“Dithering” from the Commander in Chief

Posted by Tom Skypek in Afghanistan, American Foreign Policy

Not only is the The White House dithering in its war-time decision-making, as former Vice President Dick Cheney noted the other evening, but it’s also being downright disingenuous about Afghanistan.  General Stanley McCrystal delivered his recommendation to the White House at the end of August.  He was frank in his assessment of the situation in Afghanistan:  Without additional troops, the U.S. will be unable to achieve its mission objectives in Afghanistan.  A satisfactory outcome in Afghanistan will be out of reach for Washington.   

Clearly, it is important for decision-makers to understand fully each potential course of action.  However, you can do strategy reviews until you’re blue in the face but at some point you need to make a…

Saturday, March 28th, 2009 at 12:57pm

New Af-Pak Strategy

Posted by Matt Schwieger in American Foreign Policy, Iraq

Limiting the scope of U.S. objectives is an important step in the right direction.  Still, I see two principle shortfalls with the Obama administration’s “new” strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan:

  1. Rosy assumptions on Iraq drawdown:  The plan miscalculates by underestimating the risks associated with the drawdown of U.S. involvement in Iraq.  Should a violent faction lie in waiting for the U.S. to pullout (now they have the timetable and can do so) and the situation in Iraq deteriorates, how does this affect the planned troop increase in Afghanistan?   The probability of such a contingency is not as unlikely as some would have you believe.  
  2. Inadequate troop levels given historical ratios:  If you accept the view…

© 2009 Hope is Not a Foreign Policy: Conservative commentary on foreign policy, American politics, and current events