In my “Afghanistan: The ‘Dithering’ Ends. The Soldiering Begins,” on president Obama’s Afghanistan address to the nation tomorrow night, I said, “President Obama’s deliberations and decisions, however, have gone far beyond just numbers.” I mentioned a few highlights on strategy, goals, benchmarks, “exit ramps,” etc., and on the additional efforts and participation expected on the part of Afghanistan and our allies.
Today, Jim Michaels, in USA TODAY, says pretty much the same—but much better—and provides much more in detail and substance.
In “Afghanistan plan entails more than troops,” Michaels says:
The Afghanistan strategy President Obama will detail Tuesday involves more than sending additional forces, experts and officials say, and will give the president a chance to address growing public skepticism.
[.]
Although McChrystal’s request for more troops dominated the debate over Afghanistan policy, both his plan and the one to be announced Tuesday involve more than extra forces.
The “obsessive focus on troop levels” in Afghanistan misses the point, said Anthony Cordesman, an analyst at the non-partisan Center for Strategic and International Studies. Military commanders will choose which units to send to Afghanistan based on their skills, not on the number of troops, he said.
“There is no magic number there, and quality is more important than quantity,” Cordesman said.
Michaels then goes on to list and discuss some of the key strategies “developed by McChrystal and the administration,” which include:
•Reducing civilian casualties.
•Protecting the population.
•Concentrating forces in key regions.
•Increasing the pace of training Afghan police and soldiers.
And what Michaels calls “Bang for the buck.” By this he means how to get the most of our and NATO’s forces.
Michael mentions that even if Obama sends an additional 35,000 troops and NATO sends another 6,000, McChrystal will still have “fewer troops at his disposal than the U.S. military had in Iraq at the peak of the buildup there in 2007. Then, the U.S.-led coalition commanded about 160,000 American troops.”
Finally, the understatement that if we are to leave Afghanistan eventually, the Afghans must step up to the plate by significantly boosting the police forces and the Afghan military.
As Senator Carl Levin said on Face the Nation, “The key here is an Afghan surge, not an American surge.”
Read the entire article here.
