Reno Hayek Symposium

Tony Blankley’s post in today’s RCP, puts it on the line, Replace Karzai, or Get Our Troops Out. Essentially as has been well reported there has been a break with Karzai which itself was easily predictable, given that we are without a necessary local partner, and given the fact that we are unable to replace him, we should get our troops out of there. If 911s occur in the future, we use extraordinary means to show the Allah can send a thunderbolt using the U.S. as his agent. That means heavy payback with heavy but unavoidable “collateral damage.” Think in terms of Tokyo during the final days of WWII. This is my take not Blankley’s.

That said, Blankley railes as others have on the poor Afghan troop decision that there would be a withdrawal in 18 months. If the superpower is not going to stay the course, the locals make new–or in this case old–friends! That is what has happened.

My December 3rd, Afghanistan Was the Easy Decision, post quoted a Ralph Peters article calling Obama’s troop decision a “bait and switch.” He said it send the following messages: ”To our troops: Risk your lives for a mission I’ve written off. To our allies: Race you to the exit ramp. To the Taliban: Allah is merciful, your prayers will soon be answered. To Afghan leaders: Get your stolen wealth out of the country. To Pakistan: Renew your Taliban friendships now (and be nice to al Qaeda).”  This is pretty close to what is happening, and easy to predict.

With all the credit Obama deserves for his predator assassinations at the Pakistan boarder, he messed up the opportunity to secure some of Afghanistan’s warring tribes. By telescoping an 18 month withdrawal to appease his leftist base he unnecessarily subjected our troops to risk, death and worse. He should get out. Set up a strong Pakistan relationship and make that the line of regional defense.

He has recently embarked on a dangerous voluntary nuclear disarmament which will hurt us after the next 911 when we need to show that Allah is mad at Al Qaeda and the Taliban.