A Foreign-Policy Repair Manual -- A Commentary

From Slate:

Six priorities for President Obama.

Rethink Afghanistan. When Gen. Dan McNeil recently ended his tour as commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, he said his successor would need 400,000 troops (including those of the Afghan National Army) to stabilize the country. That just isn't going to happen. The two or three brigades that we'll probably soon be redeploying to southern Afghanistan will help commanders perform certain tactical missions without relying too much on air power—i.e., without unavoidably killing civilians and thus alienating the people we're trying to win over. But they won't be enough to "win" the war. The real threat is not the Taliban fighters in Afghanistan; it's the sanctuary and replenishing ground that they have in neighboring Pakistan—and the possibility of chaos or the rise of radical Islamists there.

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