If Alexander, and the many who came after him (including the Soviets), couldn’t change the country, what makes us think we can?

There is perhaps one way we could keep the Taliban and al Qaeda at bay, and that is by outbidding them for the poppy crop. Buy it all up, year after year, and sweeten that with infrastructure: schools, roads, electricity. We can use the opiates in the legitimate medical market, and that will have the added benefit of keeping them out of the black market. It will cost a lot of money, but not nearly as much as increased military operations.

I don’t expect anyone in the new administration has the smarts to put forth a program like this. They’ll probably just pussyfoot around, getting a bunch of brave American troops killed in the process, and then sneak away the way Clinton did from Somalia.

The biggest danger, of course, is Islamist control of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. We may have to put together a deal with India to defang Pakistan, one way or another.

Even if we won, upgrading the civilization in Afghanistan without a strong king warlord in power is hopeless. The only hope would be from the previous ruling family, which could wield myth and fable and a warlord tradition.

Putin’s ego is involved in his contest with us. He does not see the demographic reality that China and the Muslim world will gobble up Russia. Russia does not have the population to man the army it has and it is going down hill. Russia needs the US but ego gets in the way.

The oil revenue drop, has made Putin ability to bribe disappear.

I’d like to run into Yon while I’m over there – to say thank you. He never ceases to amaze. He reminds me of what reporters once were.

Afghanistan should be worth nothing to us. It certainly shouldn’t be worth another soldier’s life. I’d love it if somebody in the State Department told Pooty Poot and Achmadinejad that they can split that shithole right down the middle for all we care. Pakistan too.

And yes, my husband has been all over those places. Some are decent, but not a single one in Afghanistan makes the list of decent spots. Karzai wants us gone, let’s give him what he wants.

Kinda like with those leftist South Korean students who always demonstrate against our presence there….be careful what you wish for.

Do Afghan women get treated worse than livestock? Yep. Could even 500,000 American troops change that? Nope. Quit throwing away their lives and health on Afghanistan.

Bob Herbert wrote today that Obama’s presser demonstrated how able Obama is at playing “chess” and managing to see so many steps ahead.

BuckeyeSam on February 10, 2009 at 12:30 PM

Outthinking Helen Thomas is hardly the sign of a great intellect. Most 4-year olds can do it.

We’ll probably keep a token force in the theater for years, but there will never be a victory.

Despite all the campaign rhetoric and transition pronouncements, Obama does NOT want to make Afghanistan a major item in his foreign policy agenda. Just look at who he is talking to or trying to talk to, it becomes clear that Afghanistan will be ceded to the Russo-Sino camp and probably within a year. Obama will announce that after “full and careful” consideration we “won” in Afghanistan and now it is time to bring the troops home….and make further deep cuts to the defense budget to fund social programs and offset about 5-10% of the “stimulus.”

The arrival of the 12th Imam couldn’t be better news for Ahmadinejad than Barry is. In fact, Barry is the 12th Imam. Ahmadinejad has traveled throughout central Asia for over two years now building alliances.

JiangxiDad on February 10, 2009 at 12:47 PM

You have no clout
You better not try
You better watch out, I’m telling you why.
Twelfth Imam is coming to town

A-Bomb is on list
I’ll use more than twice
Good Muslims who die
Will go to paradise
Twelfth Imam is coming to town

He knows if you’re a Christian
He knows if you’re a Jew
He knows if you’re an in-fi-del
He’s told me what to do

So….You have no clout
You better not try, I’m telling you why.
Twelfth Imam is coming to town
Twelfth Imam is coming to town

Obviously if I were President, Tsar Putin’s cell, crackberry and car phone would all be going off telling him that we – as in our two nations – need that air base as much as he needs his vodka ration. We’re at war with the descendents of Genghis Khan who seek an empire from the Caspian Sea to the Pacific… and beyond!

Oh and not to change the subject but any Republican to the right of Lincoln Chafee is better than any Democrat of today on foriegn affairs. Heck, I’ll take a Snowe-Lieberman and a SecState Collins team over this lot in the White House right now. If you didn’t vote McCain-Palin on 4 Nov’r and donated to the campaign, you really voted against our troops. Gee thanks so much.

Bottom line: Don’t hold your breath. We’re losing that base under Obama-Biden.

and failing to look three steps ahead?

Seems to me Bambi can olny look behind and point the finger.

No half hearted Op will help Afganistan… it will only get our people killed, for ultimatly no reason.

We are playing in Iran’s, and Russia’s, backyards… at the end of long non secure supply lines… and we just can’t afford the effort in Blood and Treasure right now.

Now, interestingly enough, I don’t see Russia and Iran being able to coexist long term once we leave Afganistan… its not in Russias interest to have an Islamist Jihadist state there… right now they are held together in oppostion to us… take that opposition away, and the tacit alliance they have may very well collapse rapidly.

Afganistan CAN be won… but at this point in history, we have to ask is it worth the fight NOW? We have other battles which need to be fought first… like getting our economy back in shape… and we need to worry about our own southern border…

“Will Obama prove his mettle in this arena?” What mettle? The guy is what we used to call a ‘purse’. (I guess it’s derived from the combo of ‘Percy’ and a handbag.)

Smart move. With the falling price of oil, Putin doesn’t have much money in the cupboard. And he sure isn’t going to get any from Chavez for all that military hardware he sold them.

Obama is so far over his head, this thing will be out of control within a year.

WisCon on February 10, 2009 at 12:32 PM

It’s already out of control. We are just beginning to see the fraying edges of the problem.

Our enemies are fully anticipating, and planning, on Obama to be rolling gutter balls for the next four years.

Obama has not made his case for war. In fact, he was a critic. He can send thousands of US troops to their deaths in Afghanistan and still get credit for ending the war if he throws in the towel. He’s sort of in the envious position that I suppose Nixon was in where he might entertain thoughts of winning the war for his legacy or ending the war for his legacy. Unless Obama does what Bush does and eliminates all avenues of retreat and personally ties his legacy to the outcome of the war, we can’t let him sacrifice our young men for his amusement. Those lives will have been wasted for nothing.

“We have decided to wait until the Russians send the money,” Communist Party deputy Absamat Masaliyev, a member of the parliament’s coordinating body, told The Associated Press.

The Russians are going to trump our $55M lease with $450M in aid. They are certainly welcome to do so — it’s like putting all their money on “OO” — and with about the same probability of eventual success; I’m sure Kyrgyzstan does not want to be part of Orthodox Russia. It’s time for Cold War II, in which the United States again tanks Russia’s economy by forcing them to compete. Obama’s stimulus would be a great place to put the hardware and spare cash necessary to trump Russia’s game. Let’s let the Russians give their $450M, and then we can deal with the double-dealing Kyrgyzstanis. The Kyrgyzstanis will love us for that. And what can the Russians do? They’ve already said there is no quid pro quo here and to even make the smallest squeak will show them to be liars.

Will Obama prove his mettle in this arena? Or will he become a Jimmy Carter, fumbling the regional alliances and failing to look three steps ahead?

Heh! Worship the process and not the result.

a capella on February 10, 2009 at 12:41 PM

The arrival of the 12th Imam couldn’t be better news for Ahmadinejad than Barry is. In fact, Barry is the 12th Imam. Ahmadinejad has traveled throughout central Asia for over two years now building alliances.