The Afghanistan Strategy Dialogue: My Thoughts | Center for a New American Security

I believe, having replaced the commander in Afghanistan with the military’s so-called “A Team”, we now owe the command in Afghanistan the time and resources to be successful. I believe that policy-makers and the public alike have the right to expect a shift in momentum over the next 12-18 months. But they must give the men on the ground those 12-18 months

With that Exum concludes his week-long Afghanistan “debate.”  I have a couple of closing comments.

(1) I think it is reasonable to ask President Obama to be patient with his team. It was his choice to buy into the expansion of the American commitment, and it is his war now. I am not sure how the politics will play out — I’m less sanguine about Afghanistan being irrelevant to the 2010 election cycle. That said, *I* didn’t make that choice. So, as an outside critic, I should still be free to speak out if I see mistakes being made. Or is dissent harmful? Does it hurt morale? Does it embolden our enemies? I think we’ve seen that argument made too often over the past eight years, no? So how about a moratorium on calls for moratoriums on debate about Afghanistan?

(2) I still don’t understand why the COINdinistas insist that the choice in Afghanistan is between escalation and abandonment. Surely, even if there is a consensus that muddling through along the same path as we’ve seen over the last few years is problematic, there are still a wide range of diplomatic/military/economic options other than the escalation/abandonment dichotomy. If you want to make the case that withdrawal will inevitably lead to wholesale abandonment, make it. But I don’t think you can use the example of 1993 as a definitive warning against any policy other than escalation. It is just too stark a choice.