White House Looking To Adjust War Strategy To Focus On Al Qaeda In Pakistan

New York Times:

President Obama's national security team is moving to reframe its war strategy by emphasizing the campaign against Al Qaeda in Pakistan while arguing that the Taliban in Afghanistan does not pose a direct threat to the United States, officials said Wednesday.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[joebaggadonuts]

This seems like a move toward first principles. What did we go to war for in the first place? Because the Taliban refused to give up the Al Quaida folks to us, as I understood it. After 9/11, the US was justified because the Taliban was protecting Al Quaida from us. If we had done our jobs in Tora Bora the war would have ended there. Instead Bush and his oil sponsors felt that the construction and protection of an oil/gas pipeline through Afghanistan and control over disbursements of Iraqi oil was in our best interest and this was a good excuse for military adventurism.

Now that we have an adult in the White House, we can return to sound reasoning and our best long term interests. Is it in our interest to stop Taliban imposed Sharia law from making life a living hell for folks on the ground in Afghanistan or even Pakistan? That smacks of the kind of liberalism that conservatives hate most here in America - trying to do good by imposing our will on others. If the Taliban is finally divorced from the jingoism of the Al Quaida movement, which it may be, we have taught them a lesson. Let's declare victory and leave, offering to support the Taliban in their opposition to Al Quaida interlopers.

I would also propose a trojan horse. Give the Karzai government enough 3G smart phones and infrastructure support to educate their populace, including the women (And hand cranked chargers).

[itsme leclerc]

extension to Laos/Cambodia revisited

I hope this is not true. Al Quaeda isn't a real threat. An unstable Afghanistan is.

I fear the worse.