Reshaping U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan
Where the U.S. strategy is going, and the latest debate on surgical strikes against terrorist suspects.
Two new units in the Afghan War are being created, even as the U.S. plans to scale down its operations there. The “Afghan Hands program”, which runs out of the Pentagon and a new intelligence center in Central Command, seeks to deepen the military’s expertise in and knowledge of the highly complex tribal and political dynamics of the region.
More here on The Wall Street Journal.
Meanwhile, the debate in U.S. policy circles over how to define the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan has primarily been focused on the military aspects — the latest, on surgical strikes:
The focus on so-called surgical strikes against terrorism suspects comes as the Afghanistan review accelerates. Mr. Obama met Monday with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates; his national security team met separately. The president will host Congressional leaders on Tuesday to talk about Afghanistan, then meet with top advisers on Wednesday and Friday to consider a new strategy.
The internal debate has spilled out in public at times and created stress within the Obama team. Mr. Gates warned his colleagues in a speech Monday to keep their advice to the president private, a statement taken as a rebuke to General McChrystal, who last week said publicly that he did not think a smaller-scale option would work.
“It is imperative that all of us taking part in these deliberations, civilians and military alike, provide our best advice to the president candidly but privately,” Mr. Gates told the Association of the United States Army.
More here in The New York Times.
In the view of Afghanistan expert Clare Lockhart of the Council on Foreign Relations, the ideal strategy is two-pronged: buttressing national security sources, but also channeling more resources to capacity-building in the area of good governance. Distancing herself from the notion of deepening a pool of international civilian experts to assist the government, which some policymakers champion, Lockhart emphasizes the importance of national ownership and assisting national civilian leaders for U.S. strategies to have any susbstantive long-term effect.
More here.
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