Posted by
EWRoss on Sunday, March 22, 2009 8:00:00 AM
For much of the past six years, people who criticized US involvement in Iraq frequently touted Afghanistan as the real central front in the “war on terrorism.” Candidate Barack Obama, an arch critic of the war in Iraq, called Afghanistan the “must win war.” Now with the war in Iraq virtually won and President Obama’s withdrawal plan announced, what to do about Afghanistan has become a pressing question for the new Obama administration. US commanders have called for more troops, and Obama has ordered the deployment of an additional 17,000. Indecision, however, is in the air. Will doubt that the war in Afghanistan is “winnable,” the world economic crisis, and war fatigue conspire to defeat a winning strategy and the will to execute it?