In his column “No ‘Graceful Exit’ from Afghanistan”, Bob Herbert quotes extensively from events described in “Promise’ President Obama, Year One” by Jonathan Alter to support the contention that Obama was misled by the military to add troops, which implies he may have had other practical alternatives.
Herbert says: “Anyone who has been paying attention knows that conditions on the ground right now are awful, so it looks as though we’re going to be there for a long, long while… This is a terrible thing to contemplate because in addition to the human toll (nearly half of all the American troop deaths in Afghanistan have occurred since Mr. Obama took office), the war is a giant roadblock in the way of efforts to deal effectively with deteriorating economic and social conditions here in the United States.”
Herbert goes on to say: “President Obama does not buy the comparison of Afghanistan to Vietnam, and he has a point when he says that the U.S. was not attacked from Vietnam… There is no upside to President Obama’s escalation of this world-class fiasco.”
WATCHDOG: If Herbert is going to use quotations from Alter to describe how badly the war in Afghanistan is going and to imply we should withdraw our troops, he should also explain the overwhelming national security interests described by Alter as perceived by Obama for continuing the course.
According to Alter:
“Obama was acutely conscious that protecting the country was his first responsibility and he devoted more time to confronting al Qaeda and other terrorist groups than to any other challenge in his presidency. That was the main focus of his daily National Security Sessions, his deliberations on Afghanistan and Pakistan, and, in a longer time frame, his attention nto nuclear proliferation and public diplomacy.” Pg. 347
“Early on, the president eliminated withdrawal as an option, in part because of a new classified study on what would happen to Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal if the Islamabad government fell to the Taliban. The United States, he concluded, simply couldn’t do without a substantial military presence in the region. He was never in any doubt that there was, in his words, a ‘fundamental strategic interest in making sure Afghanistan doesn’t revert to being a safe haven for al Qaeda.’” Pg. 374.
It is clear form Alter’s book that President Obama greatest fear and primary concern is the possibility of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal falling into the hands of al Qaeda. A nuclear device set off in an American city would not only causes tens of thousands of deaths but change the course of the world and reduce civil liberties for a half century to come, if not longer.
