Winning Afghanistan is Cancelled!

Hmm, did Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and fellow discussant Frederick Kagan do the math and just figure there's no way to win? Whatever the reason, here's a screen capture from the website of the American Enterprise Institute that kicked off my unintended-meanings radar:

Comments

[Jonathan Hohensee]

This is worse then the time the "God is trying to tell you something" conference was cancelled.

[Episiarch]

Didn't we already "win" in Afghanistan? Can the troops come home now?

Same for Iraq.

[Michael Pack]

My view of winning the Afgan and Iraqi war was to topple those in power and remove their resources for war and attacks against us.That done we leave them to their own devices .You leave us alone and we will do the same.I see no need to nation build.

[Elemenope]

"Winning Afghanistan is Cancelled!"

I was drinking Orange Juice, you fucker.

[Neil]

Why isn't there any coverage of General Patreaus and his testimony before Congress today?

This is the day John McCain could win the Presidency when the public sees the resolve of General Patreaus and our troops for victory!

[GILMORE]

Episiarch | April 8, 2008, 11:09am | #

Didn't we already "win" in Afghanistan?

No. Not as far as "completely destroying the taliban" is concerned.

We wanted to eliminate their complete ability to come back after we've left. We never even pushed them completely out of Helmand. They're still in control of swathes of country which are huge Opium moneymakers. Much of the population is ambivalent about them being in control or not. No one likes them much, but they at least dont spray their crops or bomb their homes or shoot them at checkpoints.

I endorse redeployment of large swaths of troops to afghanistan to completely destroy taliban presence and rebuild parts of the country. In Iraq there's little we're doing effectively with what we've got there, and the people we're fighting are locals who never had anything to do with international terrorism.

The taliban on the other hand are exactly the bastards that financed international jihadism and are the poster-children for islamic fundamentalist brutality. I'd rather we finished the war against them, and left the Iraqis to figure out their own domestic troubles.