Obama Focuses on Civilian Effort in Afghanistan Strategy Review

[tekisui]

Source: Washington Post

President Obama, convening his fifth war council meeting in as many weeks, pressed his senior national security advisers Wednesday on the political situation in Afghanistan and the effort to train the country's security forces, officials said.

Allegations of fraud in the Afghan presidential election over the summer have raised questions about the legitimacy of Hamid Karzai's government, complicating U.S. efforts to partner with him. Meanwhile, the country's security forces are seen as ill-equipped to confront an insurgency that is gaining strength.

Such factors are figuring prominently in the debate over the Obama administration's strategy in Afghanistan, official say. Although the discussions also include making a decision on whether to deploy tens of thousands of additional U.S. troops, an administration official said the president was "very focused on the complexity of the situation" Wednesday -- looking past the military aspect of the equation and toward the civilian effort.

Another official said the focus on the civilian effort grew out of a sense that the United States needs to better cultivate Afghan leaders and institutions.

"We've been at war eight years, and we realize now we're starting from scratch because very little work has been done building a credible Afghan partner," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the talks.

more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/14/AR2009101403801.html

[Kdillard]

1. Well I take the news from WaPo with a grain of salt but from

other articles I have read I hope he is listening to VP Biden and I think the focus on the civilian aspect is a very good thing.

[tekisui]

2. I am expecting a big escalation of troops.

I hope I am getting the rope-a-dope. I would really like to be knocked out on this one.

[FrenchieCat]

4. I do not have any expectations....

I will just wait and see.

Afterall, that is what I would be doing even if I had expectations...
I would still have to wait and see. :shrug:

[tekisui]

6. Sure. That is really all we can do, is wait and see.

That, and bet money on it, which I would.

The signs and leaks are pointing to an escalation. I would happily pay up if I were wrong. It will be somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000.

[FrenchieCat]

8. I never thought that President Obama was going to pull out of

Afghanistan 10 months into his term.

The strategy, and not the number of troops is the information I'm waiting on.

[tekisui]

10. Nor did I.

I hoped the 21,000 was as far as the escalation would go. I, too, await the strategy. It is a helluva mess.

[Kdillard]

7. Well it is always good imo to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

I am going to hope that Obama learns from Johnson and realizes a good President's legacy can be dragged down and forgotten by a quagmire. Hopefully what comes out of these meetings is a good exit strategy with definite goals and a forseeable end. I am however prepared for the worst. Then again President Obama seems to have something of a midas touch where just when you think things are going to hurl him into the abyss he winds up coming out of it with success.

[Colobo]

3. At least Obama is thinking about this before acting, unlike Bush.

[tekisui]

5. If the similar decision is reached in the end....

would we have given chimpy such credit?

I don't think we would have.

[FrenchieCat]

9. Possibly because he was the one to fuck up Afghanistan to begin with?

I'll give the new President much more benefit of the doubt,
because he understood that Iraq was a dumb war,
because he didn't preside over Afghanistan until just the last few months
of 8 years, and because he is a Democratic President who isn't known as a warhawk.

I think those reasons allow me to have a much more deliberate attitude
about this President's actions.....even in the theater of war.

[vaberella]

11. It's times like this that I shudder to think how far deep Bush took us in 8 years. n/t