Commentary: Occupying Afghanistan will make things worse *and*

[unhappycamper]

Commentary: Obama must go for a knockout in Afghanistan.

The whole Afghanistan occupation is heating up. You have folks (like me) that say 'Get the fuck out!' You have Code Pinkers that think a US withdrawal will hurt the women of Afghanistan. You have wing nuts like Sen. Lindsey Graham who advocates sending everything McChrystal wants. And we are all passionate about our respective causes.

And now for the dueling commentaries in McClatchy.

Commentary: Occupying Afghanistan will make things worse
By Mark Weisbrot | Center for Economic and Policy Research

WASHINGTON -- President Obama is coming under attack from the right for his reluctance to grant the request of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, for more U.S. troops.

On the other side of the equation sits the majority of the American people who are against sending more troops, and in fact, oppose this seemingly endless war that has now entered year nine.

Obama should go with the people and set a timetable to get our troops out of Afghanistan as soon as is practically possible, which should be less than one year. Their presence cannot contribute to bringing peace and security to that country, nor does it contribute to the security of the United States. In fact, the occupation of Afghanistan is making things worse on both counts.

With regard to the people of Afghanistan, my colleague Robert Naiman of Just Foreign Policy presents the most compelling piece of recent evidence that the occupation is a complete failure.

Five years ago, 70 percent of eligible voters participated in the Afghan presidential election. This year it was down to 38 percent. This is mainly because the security situation has deteriorated over the last five years. It also represents a political failure: the inability or unwillingness to negotiate a political settlement that would have allowed many more people to vote.


Commentary: Obama must go for a knockout in Afghanistan
By Bogdan Kipling | Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

WASHINGTON -- There are many reasons for hunkering down in Afghanistan and adopting a tougher military strategy so Americans and their NATO allies can finally leave behind a more stable - though barely democratic - Middle East. New York City, Philadelphia, Denver, Springfield, Ill, and the U.S. Marine Corps base at Quantico, Va., are high among those reasons.

All five places were prime targets of suspected radical Islamic jihadists, as emerges from plots the FBI and local police nixed in September.

Most of the would-be terrorists the FBI has identified and arrested had trained at various al-Qaeda camps in or near Afghanistan. And all of them had gained cover in the United States by posing as normal members of moderate Muslim communities.

Insiders in the international intelligence community say there is suspicion that numerous Islamic terror cells hide in the United States, only waiting for signals to launch attacks that could be more lethal than 9/11.

President Barack Obama would do well to heed the "don't go wobbly on me, George" advice Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher gave the first President George Bush after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990.