Posted on 08/31/2009 2:17:28 PM PDT by OldDeckHand
George F. Will, the elite conservative commentator, will call in his next column for U.S. ground troops to leave Afghanistan, according to publishing sources.
“[F]orces should be substantially reduced to serve a comprehensively revised policy: America should do only what can be done from offshore, using intelligence, drones, cruise missiles, airstrikes and small, potent special forces units, concentrating on the porous 1,500-mile border with Pakistan, a nation that actually matters,” Will writes in the column, scheduled for publication later this week.
Obama ordered a total of 21,000 more U.S. troops into Afghanistan in February and March, and casualties have mounted as the forces began confronting the Taliban more aggressively. August saw the highest monthly death toll for the U.S. since the invasion in 2001, the second record month in a row.
Will’s prescription – in which he urges Obama to remember Bismarck’s decision to halt German forces short of Paris in 1870 - seems certain to split Republicans. He is a favorite of fiscal conservatives. The more hawkish right can be expected to attack his conclusion as foolhardy, short-sighted and naïve, allowing, potentially making the U.S. more vulnerable to terrorist attack.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Both parties are divided on Afghanistan. Just read comments from the Ron Paul idiots and you’ll find that to be true.
As for myself I will simply say there is no historical evidence that a war can be effectively fought without occupying ground troops. If we abandon Afghanistan the eventual fall of Pakistan to an Iranian or Taliban style regime is guaranteed.
Sorry, but a draft-dodger, amnesty lover who has written the same column with different words for 20 years now, has no say about defense issues.
Maybe his followung column will tell the families of all those who suffered and died in defense of freedom that it was all a waste.
Will long ago became part of the Washington establishment where being accepted into the colony is more important than expressing the truth.
Along with the Paki nukes. You want that, Will??
I want our troops to succeed in Afghanistan, regardless of whether that helps Obama politically. What do Freepers (especially with a military background) think is a reasonable goal in Afghanistan, and how we can we achieve it? Is the ugly reality is that we should cut our losses and leave? I don’t know.
STFU General Bowtie. Sheesh.
If you insist on looking at it in purely political terms, this is Obama’s war. It’s good to make him try to defend it to his party peace-nicks. It’ll be fun.
Will has some substantive things to add with respect to domestic policy. But, he's never missed an opportunity to make an idiot of himself on foreign relation. How many times did he oppose Reagan - including the now historically prescient "Tear down this wall" speech - only to be proven categorically wrong as events unfolded? Perhaps he's hoping the law of averages will catch up to him, eventually.
I’m also conflicted by Afghanistan. This isn’t Iraq where we had a somewhat modern population to deal with. We’re dealing with cavemen with ak-47’s.
since when is Will ‘a favorite of conservatives”??
he has no guts. he loves the DC social circuit and to be on Stephie’s show!
our objective in afghanistan needs to be to make sure any terrorists that may plot against us, get killed. I don’t think our objective should be to make a functioning democracy in afghanistan, as the country is so backwards it is an impossible dream and will cost too many lives..
we should keep to our bases and bomb the hell out of any potential terrorists..
Obama seems to be expanding the objective to much more than that.
But something strange happened and the Rats actually won. Thus they had to govern under the rhetoric upon which they campaigned. That rhetoric as we all know (except the MSM) was disingenuous to cover up for the fact the left wing has taken control of the party and is weak on defense.
If the Rats pull out of the "right war, right time" that they created, they will forever loose the National Defense debate.
I will give you that we shouldn't play politics with defense like the Rats, but Will's offshore strategy may actually work.
I, too am conflicted...short of taking over the whole country, leaving our military there for at least a generation in very strong numbers, redoing their whole agricultural/economic system and starting from ground up to build a ‘democratic “ nation....I don’t see how we come out of this.
Bin Laden was a Saudi..who cleverly in a masterful stroke...struck from within Afghanistan and the Afghan/Paki border region...and like a flame drew us “the moth” to him in the worst trap ever...the other image that comes to mind is the Venus Flytrap!
only solution - convert Afghans, Paks, Persians
to Christianity...
Interesting view!
‘general’ george will....a real military genius /s
Here's the problem - Where did the peace-nicks go? There are no longer any Code Pink demonstrations - not on the wars anyways. There's no massive displays of mock graveyards with white crosses, as were all the rage during Bush's tenure. There's no concerted or vigorous effort by any leftist group to oppose either war. And, when's the last time you heard an Afghanistan or Iraq question at a televised presidential news conference? I don't believe that there's been any "war on terror" questions in any of the prime-time news conferences.
I'm afraid that this controversy - to the extent that their is one - is aimed squarely at splintering the Republicans, again.
It’s a good thing Will hasn’t been elected to anything.
But did the terrorists repel the Russians with our help? Or should the same people be called terrorists if the are not fighting us. All so confusing.
Retire George....you are a bore.
And David Frum has a crush on Obama. So what?
Just curious why we’re always supposed to pay attention to these people. If Rush called for a pull out that would be newsworthy.
Thank you Mr. Will!
Everything else is a stop-gap.
ha ha ha
monday, I agree with you!
If you are talking history, Afghanistan has never been effectively occupied. Forces that have tried and failed include Alexander the Great, the British, and the Soviets. If we were Muslim we would probably have a chance, but only by being as brutal towards the population as the Taliban are. They understand the mindset of Muslims who respect nothing but brute raw power. Carrots mean nothing to Muslims, only the stick will gain compliance.
We lost George Will long ago. He is simply not reliably conservative. Reading anything he writes or listening to anything he says is simply a waste of time and bandwidth. I no longer bother.
Well said.
You have one of their own in the White Hut, he is letting members of hamas immigrate plus more Muslims into the USA. Seems pointless having American boys die fighting in Muslim countries when the CIC is one of them.
O does not want the troops here at home. Stopping terrorism starts at the border.
It also requires having a non marxist non-islamic usurper. The Joint Chief of Staff should realize they and we are being played. Judge Carter knows it. The Marines cannot fire back at the Taliban or they go to jail.
This is worse when McNamara rush the M-16 into production and American boys died trying to un-jam their guns.
This war was decided last November. Juan McCain, the Manchurian stooge set up to lose, is just AS GUILTY AS Hussein.
What happened to the body bag pictures?
I’m pretty sure the code pinkys will come out if Barry boosts our troop level again. Unlike the slavering media, the left demands perfect obedience to it’s agenda.
I agree with you, that’s why it was the perfect Democrat war: unwinnable and, after the original initiative, nonstrategic.The Pakistani border should be dealt with—from the air.
Will is a pretentious guy, but he’s turned on Obama and he has some clout with moderates.
Obama mishandled it and increased American casualties just to try and make a point about Iraq while pressing Israel and letting Iran go nuclear.
I want Palin to bring up Honduras too, because we need to go after Obama on national security as well as his authoritarian grab of the economy and domestic sphere.
It would be a better(for us) if we could somehow convert the populations of those countries to liberalism. With no constitution in those countries, they will be essentially 'dead' within a few years with unchecked/institutionalized liberalism. They wouldn't attack any other countries, economically destroy themselves by not drilling for oil, and they'll be pretty much neutered with regards to everything else.
If you want to destroy a country, encourage liberalism within it. If there's any question as to whether or not this would be an effective strategy, just look at what it's doing to our country!
Nonsense. Afghanistan has never had a functioning central government, has a GDP of null, and is of little strategic interest outside of geography. I agree we should concentrate on Pakistan and to hell with that backwater.
“America is a strange country. All of its best generals are journalists.” — Defense Undersecretary Douglas J. Feith
Our REAL war is against Pakistan and Iran. Until we deal with that, Afghanistan and Iraq don't matter. They'll eventually fall.
Of course, the US govt under both Bush and Obama refuses to acknowledge the gravity of the issue.
I consider myself fairly well read, and I haven't seen a single picture since Gates changed the policy last spring. Not a single picture.
Pull Out is something Barack Obama’s daddy should have done 48 years ago.
Will can be exasperating with his pomposity and willingness to go easy on radical liberal actions, and he is too fond of showing off his historical knowledge. Here his historical acumen is is so far off base as to make him appear historically illiterate re the Franco Prussian War and dangerously nive re. Afghanistan and al Queda.
I actually agree with Will. If you are not there to win, Obama has stated that he is not there to win, then get out of there. We are not there to prop up the democrats as far as looking a little hawkish. They are tying the troops hands behind thir backs. Time to get the ground troops out.
We will never nation build Afghanistan.
I saw on Fox that outspoken special forces guy who said Afghanistan is totally different than Iraq and war cannot be fought the same. Like Will suggests, he said use special forces and kill Al Qaeda everywhere; in Afghanistan, Pakistan and any other country. That is who we are at war with and we shouldn’t put our soldiers at risk trying to protect and build a country where one can’t be built. Just kill the bad guys.
Obviously ole George did not learn anything from Clinton’s mistake in Mogadishu, Somalia. If we pull out this will give Osama the same excuse he used to attack us on 9/11, that we do not have the guts to fight and we are a “paper tiger”.
The “Boy Wonder” is managing to screw up the war in fine shape. How does he plan to shift the blame to Pres. Bush when this Humpty Dumpty wall “falls down”?
I believe his conclusion as foolhardy, short-sighted and naïve, allowing, potentially making the U.S. more vulnerable to terrorist attack.
Way to provide Obama cover to give yet another gift to his Islamist friends, George.
Sheesh. GOP stuck on stupid as usual.
George Will pulled out of common sense twenty-five years ago, but he might be right about this.
Did you know Cindy Sheehan camped out in Martha's Vineyard for Obama's vacation just as she used to in Crawford? Weasely Charles Gibson's response - "Enough already!"
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/ABCs-Charles-Gibson-to-Cindy-Sheehan-Thanks-for-your-sacrifice-Now-get-lost-53803917.html
What a phony.
Give Cindy her due. She's not a political hack. Even if you are 100% pro-war, you've got to respect her. Unlike those "anti-war" dems who shut up on January 20.
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