Afghanistan Needs Strategy And Will

Investors.com ^ | November 24, 2009 | INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY Staff

[Kaslin]

Afghanistan: Word is out that President Obama will send 34,000 reinforcements for our military in Afghanistan. It's better than expected, but mere numbers aren't victory. A strategy and a will to win are. Still no word on that.

White House leakers Tuesday disclosed that President Barack Obama will dispatch the troops and make a televised announcement about his decision on Dec. 1.

After months of dithering, it's coming in just under the wire for what Afghanistan commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal called a limited time frame for a chance of victory. Maybe it will make it.

The numbers are stingy, given that McChrystal reportedly sought 40,000 troops and analysts say he'll need between 40,000 and 45,000. The military still may be able to pull it off if, as happened in the early years of U.S. operation in Colombia, logistical sleight of hand permits a slightly higher amount in country, as comings and goings of troops overlap.

But the most critical factor is not numbers, which the media has focused too closely on. It's whether the president has a strategy and a will to win. That's leadership, and we need to see it.

Time will tell with the president's upcoming address to the nation.

This week, he's spoken of the need to "finish the job." Although it's not the word we want to hear — victory — it's an improvement over the "exit strategy" he used earlier. In fact, his new words faintly echo the World War II-era troops who modestly described their mighty victory as "a job to do." We hope the president means it.

[cripplecreek]

Afghanistan needs a new American president in DC.

[Kaslin]

[Tallguy]

Obama is going to put 75% of the troops in that Gen. McCrystal requested. The troop levels probably won’t reach their max levels until next Spring. By then Obama will declare defeat & start a withrawal... which is what he really wanted to do in the first place.