Joe Biden’s whispers are louder than the leaker’s hopes. That is, to pressure the Administration into escalating in Afghanistan by making the military’s case in public.
People might remember Biden’s guest posts around here, including one on Pakistan offered on Huffington Post and this site, during the primary. Pakistan has always been Biden’s main focus, something on which we agreed early on.
WASHINGTON — President Obama is exploring alternatives to a major troop increase in Afghanistan, including a plan advocated by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to scale back American forces and focus more on rooting out Al Qaeda there and in Pakistan, officials said Tuesday.
[...] Among the alternatives being presented to Mr. Obama is Mr. Biden’s suggestion to revamp the strategy altogether. Instead of increasing troops, officials said, Mr. Biden proposed scaling back the overall American military presence. Rather than trying to protect the Afghan population from the Taliban, American forces would concentrate on strikes against Qaeda cells, primarily in Pakistan, using special forces, Predator missile attacks and other surgical tactics.
The Americans would accelerate training of Afghan forces and provide support as they took the lead against the Taliban. But the emphasis would shift to Pakistan. Mr. Biden has often said that the United States spends something like $30 in Afghanistan for every $1 in Pakistan, even though in his view the main threat to American national security interests is in Pakistan.
Laura Rozen, rightly calling these new reports “McChrystal leak backlash”, also highlights the Washington Post article, which makes the point that while more troops would be good for Afghans, it’s putting our troops in harm’s way without getting anything concrete done.
To offer something very sobering, a good source told me that Homeland Security has recently shipped 1,000 body bags to Afghanistan. Not news, but simply a reminder of the fact that our troops are becoming bigger targets, with the U.S. mission in Afghanistan spiraling into a bigger loss for us than gain.
I also still question why we’re not hearing anything much anymore about a civilian surge. Hard to do without security.
UPDATE: Fred Kaplan has the bottom line: It’s Not About the Troops – Only a legitimate Afghan government can beat the Taliban.
