Obama's New War Plan: Jamie Metrick

My feelings on the Afghani deployment are also mixed. At this point, I don't think anyone wants more war, more debt, and more American lives lost. But are Obama supporters really so naive as to think once he became president he would magically find a way to subdue the Taliban and Al'Qaeda and everyone would come home? And in his first year no less? President Obama has chosen a plan of action that is only the first step in stabilizing Afghanistan. He may not be the idealist Czar of change he campaigned as, but he is a pragmatist. I can't help but feel that by being a target of criticism of both the far right and the far left his political strategy is well-advised and balanced. 

I think we all must prepare ourselves for the long-haul. We are trying to simultaneously restore two war-torn nations and defeat several international terrorist organizations. These conflicts may not be resolved even after two Obama terms. We had a chance to stabilize Afghanistan in the 1980s and - as anyone who has read Charlie Wilson's War can tell you - we blew it. We have been dealing with those ramifications ever since and may have to for years to come. I fear that anything this and future administrations do will be futile, but only time will tell. 

However, I do wish that Obama would learn a lesson from the Reagan administration and instead of spending billions on the military, use some of that money to build schools, hospitals, and other infrastructure in Afghanistan. We have tried bullets and bombs. I think it is time to try education and economic growth. It will not yield instant, drastic results but it will lay the foundation for real and long lasting change in Afghanistan.

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