You told our nation's finest -- the men and women of our armed forces -- they will bleed and die not for victory in Afghanistan but for an exit strategy, for the endgame you and your gauzy leftist ideologues deemed lacking in Iraq, for a way out. For retreat. Will you dare call it surrender?
The commander you appointed, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has warned of "mission failure" without as many as 80,000 troops, a minimum of 40,000. You have authorized three-quarters of his requested minimum, or 30,000. Lincoln had his McClellan, who wouldn't fight, and finally found -- in Grant -- the sort of general he needed. You are blessed to have in McChrystal a latter-day Grant, but does he have, in you, a Lincoln in reverse? If this surge fails, will you blame Gen. McChrystal and the nation's fighting forces for your lack of grit?
IN YOUR West Point lecture, you dismissed comparisons of Afghanistan to Vietnam. You did not mention this history regarding corruption, viable regimes, and surges:
(1) Mikhail Gorbachev inherited a war in Afghanistan, authorized a surge, and was tucking tail in 18 months.
(2) You and some of your heavy strategic thinkers -- Vice President Biden, Sen. Kerry, Mesdames Clinton and Pelosi -- have deplored corruption in the Karzai government and loudly hungered for a "credible" Afghan partner. (Wasn't it just yesterday that you and some of those same heavyweights, regarding Iraq, were hungering for a Karzai?) But it was ever so: Maliki in Iraq, Diem and Thieu in Vietnam, Rhee in Korea. You need to dance with the partner you came with.
(3) In 1973, following the failure of the McNamara-Johnson policy of incrementalism in Vietnam, Congress cut off funds for the American enterprise there. The South Vietnamese government, a credible partner, soon fell to the Communists -- and the people with it. Here's hoping your policy of incrementalism does not lead to the political micromanagement, diminished will, and funding cut-off in Afghanistan that lost Vietnam.
XXX
The fundamental question regarding Afghanistan goes to your dedication to victory, your resolve to see it through. If you shed your Hamlet-like indecision for a laser-like commitment, you might first win the people -- both here and in Afghanistan -- and then win the war. Any other outcome in Afghanistan, and the jihadists there and across the globe will have our lunch.