10/2/08

This week General McKiernan, the top commander in Afghanistan, and General David Petraeus made an obvious point: “Afghanistan is not Iraq.” Both insisted that the challenges in Afghanistan are very different than the ones in Iraq and therefore require a very different strategy and approach. McKiernan said “What I don’t think is needed – the word I don’t use in Afghanistan is the word surge” and General Petraeus explained that every situation is “unique.” This is in stark contrast to the approach advocated by Senator McCain, who has insisted on applying the same “surge” plan that was adopted in Iraq to Afghanistan. At last Friday’s debate McCain said, “the same strategy that he [Obama] condemned in Iraq. It’s going to have to be employed in Afghanistan.” In July, McCain said “the surge in Iraq…shows us the way to succeed in Afghanistan.” It is not surprising that McCain would mistakenly conflate Iraq and Afghanistan, since he and his fellow conservatives have paid little attention to the war in Afghanistan. McCain didn’t offer his “surge” plan for Afghanistan until late this summer and at the Republican National Convention last month, no major speaker even mentioned the word Afghanistan. As the situation continues to deteriorate in Afghanistan, the United States needs to adopt the comprehensive plan that progressives have been advocating the past few years.  

U.S. Commanders rebuff McCain’s vision for the war in Afghanistan.  Speaking in Washington yesterday General David McKiernan, head of the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan and former head of ground forces in Iraq, rejected McCain’s plan for Afghanistan.  McKiernan argued that more troops “are urgently required to combat a worsening insurgency, but he stated emphatically that no Iraq-style ‘surge’ of forces will end the conflict there.”  While McCain has often said that he wants to apply the same surge strategy in Afghanistan as in Iraq, the commanding general clearly stated “Afghanistan is not Iraq.” General David Petraeus, now the head of CENTCOM and former commander in Iraq said, “People often ask, ‘What did you learn from Iraq that might be transferable to Afghanistan?’... The first lesson, the first caution really, is that every situation like this is truly and absolutely unique, and has its own context and specifics and its own texture.” [Washington Post, 10/2/08. New York Times, 10/1/08]

Afghanistan’s strategic puzzle will not be solved by a surge in troops alone.  NATO-ISAF commander General David McKiernan outlined Afghanistan’s many challenges that cannot be addressed purely by an influx of troops: “A country that has very harsh geography. It’s very difficult to move around, getting back to our reliance on helicopters. It’s a country with very few natural resources, as opposed to the oil revenues that [Iraq] has. There’s very little money to be generated in terms of generated in Afghanistan. The literacy rate — you have a literate society in Iraq, you have a society that has a history of producing civil administrators, technocrats, middle class that are able to run the country in Iraq. You do not have that in Afghanistan…So there are a lot of challenges. What I don’t think is needed — the word that I don’t use in Afghanistan is the word ‘surge’…There needs to be a sustained commitment of a variety of military and non-military resources, I believe.”  Today’s piece in the New York Times, covering Afghanistan’s debilitating opium trade, which funds insurgents and produces instability, further demonstrates why a military solution alone will not be sufficient in Afghanistan.  [General David McKiernan, Washington Independent, 10/1/08.  NY Times, 10/02/08]

McCain has consistently ignored Afghanistan or viewed it through the prism of Iraq.  McCain has put Afghanistan on the back-burner for 6 years, with disastrous results.  Immediately following September 11th, McCain’s attention was fixed not on the Taliban or al-Qaeda, but Iraq, when he asked “What’s next?”  In 2003, McCain claimed that “nobody in Afghanistan threatens the United States of America and nobody is running terrorist training camps to orchestrate attacks on the United States of America.”  His complacency worsened later that year, when he said before the Council on Foreign Relations that “in the long term, we may muddle through in Afghanistan.”  In the three major foreign policy speeches of his presidential campaign, he mentioned Afghanistan only seven times, and before July 15 his website contained no plan for Afghanistan. Today, he continues to view Afghanistan through the lens of Iraq, with no plan beyond indiscriminately applying Iraq tactics onto the Afghanistan theater. [John McCain, 10/3/01. John McCain, 4/10/03. John McCain, 11/5/03. John McCain, 3/26/08. John McCain, 4/15/08. John McCain, 6/02/08. John McCain.com, 7/15/08]

Quick Hits

The Senate passed the economic bailout plan by a 3 to 1 margin. The House may vote on the package Friday.

Suicide bombers attacked near two Shia mosques in Baghdad, killing 20, during a holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan.

Iraqi authorities officially took control of the Awakening Movement’s Sunni militias from the U.S. government amid continuing sectarian and political tensions.

The Senate approved a nuclear deal with India, allowing trade for the development of India’s peaceful nuclear program.

The U.N. has raised its security level in Pakistan following the Marriot Hotel bombing last month.  Children of diplomats will have to leave, but the U.N. says that it retains its commitment to Pakistan and will continue operations as normal.

A new report calls for a re-adjustment of homeland security spending priorities, as hi-tech emergency equipment is rarely used while “cash-strapped” police departments struggle to deal with rising crime rates.

Somalia accepted international help to deal with piracy off of its coast; the Somali government had particular praise for the actions of the Russian navy as the European Union agreed to develop a maritime security force against ongoing piracy in the region.

Time Magazine has a piece on how Islamabad is beginning to look like Baghdad due to the security measures taking effect after last month’s Marriot Hotel bombing.

Almost half the population of Zimbabwe could be in need of food aid and medical assistance. The ongoing economic crisis is one of the “great hyperinflations in world history,” exacerbating the humanitarian situation.

The Nation has a piece on John McCain’s ties to Russian oligarchs.