Beneath, two stories from yesterdays New York Times.
KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 5--A suicide bomber smashed his car into a bus carrying Afghan Army personnel here in the capital early Wednesday, killing 13 people...The car bombing was the second in the two days, and occurred as Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates visited Kabul. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the first bombing, on Tuesday morning, in which a suicide bomber crashed into a two-car NATO convoy on the Kabul airport road, wounding 22 Afghan civilians on a bus and on the street.
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BAGHDAD, Dec. 5--Car bombs in Baghdad and three northern Iraqi cities killed at least 22 people, and wounded more than 60 others on Wednesday, as defense Secretary Robert M. Gates arrived for an unannounced visit with senior Iraqi officials.
A mere coincidence--I doubt it. Evidence of an organized and coordinated effort by Al Qaeda--I'd bet on it. "Unannounced visit with senior Iraqi officials"--Al Qaeda seems to have known about it, who's kidding who?
The Petraeus surge has made a lot of progress in Iraq. Our results in Afghanistan are, at best, mixed. Still it's apparent that Al Qaeda can still function worldwide, and demonstrate its presence on its own schedule. We're still far away from victory or even stalemate in either country. Who says we can reduce troop levels? A lot of politicians, mostly Democrats, but a few Republicans are trying to set deadlines and time tables. It's wishful thinking.
We've gotten ourselves in a mess with no easy way out, and maybe no out at all. General Petraeus has enlisted Sunni tribes in our fight against Al Qaeda. With the help of our troops they're doing damn well. What happens when the surge ends and we begin to bring the boys back? Well, maybe we can't do that. The army needs more troops to battle Al Qaeda in the north.
Has Al Qaeda just been laying back, waiting for us to leave? Maybe, but meanwhile, they've demonstrated that they can pull off an explosion in Baghdad, three in North Iraq, and two in Afghanistan while Secretary Gates is in town. If we do pull out troops now, is Al Qaeda in a position to come back, and slaughter the Sunnis who've been helping us in central Iraq--maybe. Can we afford to take the chance that this will happen, I don't think so. We're stuck.
Some part of me wants to be out of Iraq all together, and for a few days, I think we're making progress. Then Al Qaeda pulls a stunt like the Gates caper, and I realize we're not close to settling anything. I'm not going to suggest I know the answer, but I do know that none of the Presidential candidates has released a position paper on how he or she would solve the problem.
Yesterday's Al Qaeda explosions brought home once more how far away we are from "victory" in either Iraq or Afghanistan. They should've brought home to everybody that Al Qaeda is still a force to be reckoned with. I'm waiting to hear serious people present rational plans about an exit strategy, or in the alternative, to admit to us that we're going to have boots on the ground there for a long time. When I refer to serious people, I'm including the Presidential candidates, and I wouldn't mind hearing from Secretary Gates either.