In addition to the numerous factors at play for President Obama and his administration, the decision to send additional troops to Afghanistan is now going to place the burden of war squarely on his shoulders for the first time. Yes, he has been president for nearly a full year and he has been the Commander-in-Chief during the ongoing, global War on Terror. But now the troops that are going to Afghanistan are going to be there on his order, not that of President Bush. At a critical juncture in the engagement in Afghanistan, President Obama was given an opportunity to pull back American forces or re-define their role in such a way as to establish a new agenda in the region.
Instead, it appears that he’s going to send in more troops, mirroring the strategy employed by President Bush in Iraq in the closing months of his presidency. The Iraqi surged worked, at least initially, and the government there was able to stabilize to the point of at least creating the impression of functionality. In Afghanistan, however, there was very little infrastructure in place before the U.S. invasion, either politically or economically. As a result, the Afghan problem is as much one of corruption, greed and opportunism as it is one of a military engagement.
The Washington Post is reporting that Obama’s official decision will come down on December 1, likely in the form of a national address by the President. Administration officials have been careful to point out that the president is carefully weighing all of the options and that his primary concern with sending additional troops is ensuring that a viable exit strategy is in place. With the president appearing to hedge his bet in Afghanistan, an exit strategy should definitely be on standby.
