Similarities To Iraq Surge Plan Mask Risks In Afghanistan

VILLAGE VIEW - U.S. Army Capt. Max Hanlin meets with village elders in Rajankala in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, Nov. 27, 2009. The U.S. Army operates from combat outposts to add flexibility to operations in their sectors. Hanlin is the commander of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Francisco V. Govea II

From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — President Obama strongly opposed President George W. Bush’s surge in Iraq during his presidential campaign, and even now he has never publicly acknowledged that it was largely successful.

But in the White House Situation Room a little more than a month ago, he told his aides, “It turned out to be a good thing.” And as many of Mr. Obama’s own advisers have recounted in recent days in interviews, the decision on the surge of 30,000 troops to Afghanistan by next summer was at least partly inspired by the success of the effort in Iraq, which Mr. Bush’s aides say is their best hope that historians will give them some credit when the history of a highly problematic war is written.

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My Comment: There are many differences between the two, but (from my point of view) the Iraq surge was the one that was more difficult both politically and militarily. When the surge started in Iraq, the country was in the grip of a civil war with all three major ethnic/religious communities (Shiite-Sunni-Kurd) at war with each other. The urban bloodbath was horrible, and in the middle of this hatred the U.S. had to step in to separate the different sides.

Afghanistan also has ethnic/tribal tensions, but nowhere near what was the case in Iraq. The Taliban are also not universally loved .... with much of their power and influence based on the sole reason that there is no alternative.

If Afghanistan is going to be a problem, it is in the logistics of getting there, supplying the necessary troops, keeping security in the urban and more critical rural areas, and keeping the porous border with Pakistan under control.