Is A Smaller War In Afghanistan Our Way To Get Out?

DOOR GUNNER - U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Carson Ferraro mans a .50-caliber door gun while flying an aerial reconnaissance mission over Camp Baston, Afghanistan, Sept. 3, 2010. Ferraro, a UH-1Y Huey crew chief, is assigned to Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 369, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Ryan Rholes

Finding A Way Out Of Afghanistan -- Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Washington Post

Team B efforts have long played an influential role in determining the outcome of intra-elite debates on critical national security issues. In the 1970s, the CIA's Team B report on Soviet military capabilities, together with the work of the Committee on the Present Danger, encouraged the Carter administration away from détente and toward an arms race with Moscow. And the Project for the New American Century, led by William Kristol and a passel of neo-cons, was influential in swaying the Bush administration toward the invasion of Iraq.

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My Comment: At the beginning of the Afghanistan invasion and subsequent occupation, the line from Washington was that U.S. and NATO forces were not going to repeat the same mistakes that the Soviet Union did when they invaded the country with huge numbers of troops. In fact, Pentagon spokesmen were always repeating the mantra that our forces were going to be kept at a minimum, and that larger numbers were not necessary .... but in fact would be perceived as provocative.

Somehow and somewhere something went wrong, and not having a cooperative ally in Pakistan that permitted the Taliban to regroup and organize only made things worse. Katrina Vanden Heuvel's search for a smaller war and footprint in Afghanistan is unfortunately too late .... the war has evolved into something else, and that something else is widespread conflict and killings on a national level with all sides intent on fighting to the end.

As for us .... in the end our forces are going to leave this backward and corrupt country, and the Taliban, warlords, and different ethnic groups that make up Afghanistan are just going to intensify a conflict that was interrupted by us after 9/11.

And what is my take to all of this .... I say good riddance to them all.