Melvin A. Goodman: President Obama, Afghanistan and US National Security
[Melvin A. Goodman is national security and intelligence columnist for Truthout. He is senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and adjunct professor of government at Johns Hopkins University. His 42-year government career included service at the CIA, State Department, Defense Department and the US Army. His latest book is "Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA."]
President Barack Obama announced last night that he will send 30,000 additional U.S. soldiers and marines to Afghanistan over the next seven months and that additional resources will be used to train Afghan security forces and bolster the Afghan government. This is a seriously flawed policy. The troop deployment and the appropriations will have no impact on the insignificant al Qaeda presence in Afghanistan; no significant success in controlling the growing Taliban presence; and will make only a limited contribution to nation-building in Afghanistan.
Moreover, adding these troops will further undermine the economic situation in the United States. This decision demonstrates that President Obama has not yet developed a strategic understanding of US national security. In an obvious effort to placate the critics of the Afghan buildup, the president said that he would begin a drawdown of these forces in the summer of 2011, giving the military less than a year to achieve its mission. It would have been far better to leave US forces at current levels and make the case for gradual withdrawal.
Although the military ignored the problem of Afghanistan in the 1990s and had no plans for using force for Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the Joint Chiefs of Staff are now pushing for a victory in this inhospitable land and predictably arguing that winning there is a matter of will on the part of the United States. Our military leaders blamed our failure in Vietnam on the absence of will on the part of the Congress, and Generals David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal have positioned themselves to blame any failure in Afghanistan on the Obama administration's lack of will. After making a series of ignominious decisions to escalate the war in Vietnam, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara eventually learned that "wars generate their own momentum and follow the law of unanticipated consequences." Afghanistan will prove no exception to that rule...
... The unfortunate decision to make the announcement of a troop increase at West Point, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious military academy, worsens the problem for President Obama because it joins him to his two immediate predecessors; both contributed to the militarization of American national security policy. President Bill Clinton deferred to the military and refused to press for a ban on land mines, the creation of an international criminal court and the ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty; President Obama is still dragging his heels on these issues. Nearly eight years ago at West Point, President George W. Bush announced the doctrine of pre-emptive war, which was used to justify the invasion of Iraq. Bush also walked away from arms control and disarmament, which the Pentagon has opposed over the past 50 years, and endorsed huge increases in defense spending. President Obama is moving positively on renewing a strategic arms control agreement with Russia, but has not really pressed the "reset" button with Russia that would allow greater progress on a variety of proliferation and regional issues. He also has deferred to the military in making key personnel appointments in the field of national security.
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President Barack Obama announced last night that he will send 30,000 additional U.S. soldiers and marines to Afghanistan over the next seven months and that additional resources will be used to train Afghan security forces and bolster the Afghan government. This is a seriously flawed policy. The troop deployment and the appropriations will have no impact on the insignificant al Qaeda presence in Afghanistan; no significant success in controlling the growing Taliban presence; and will make only a limited contribution to nation-building in Afghanistan.
Moreover, adding these troops will further undermine the economic situation in the United States. This decision demonstrates that President Obama has not yet developed a strategic understanding of US national security. In an obvious effort to placate the critics of the Afghan buildup, the president said that he would begin a drawdown of these forces in the summer of 2011, giving the military less than a year to achieve its mission. It would have been far better to leave US forces at current levels and make the case for gradual withdrawal.
Although the military ignored the problem of Afghanistan in the 1990s and had no plans for using force for Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the Joint Chiefs of Staff are now pushing for a victory in this inhospitable land and predictably arguing that winning there is a matter of will on the part of the United States. Our military leaders blamed our failure in Vietnam on the absence of will on the part of the Congress, and Generals David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal have positioned themselves to blame any failure in Afghanistan on the Obama administration's lack of will. After making a series of ignominious decisions to escalate the war in Vietnam, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara eventually learned that "wars generate their own momentum and follow the law of unanticipated consequences." Afghanistan will prove no exception to that rule...
... The unfortunate decision to make the announcement of a troop increase at West Point, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious military academy, worsens the problem for President Obama because it joins him to his two immediate predecessors; both contributed to the militarization of American national security policy. President Bill Clinton deferred to the military and refused to press for a ban on land mines, the creation of an international criminal court and the ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty; President Obama is still dragging his heels on these issues. Nearly eight years ago at West Point, President George W. Bush announced the doctrine of pre-emptive war, which was used to justify the invasion of Iraq. Bush also walked away from arms control and disarmament, which the Pentagon has opposed over the past 50 years, and endorsed huge increases in defense spending. President Obama is moving positively on renewing a strategic arms control agreement with Russia, but has not really pressed the "reset" button with Russia that would allow greater progress on a variety of proliferation and regional issues. He also has deferred to the military in making key personnel appointments in the field of national security.