A national security analyst believes President Obama's indecision about what strategy to implement to win the war in Afghanistan could hamper the current efforts of American troops there.
Senior White House officials are reportedly considering a policy shift in Afghanistan that would focus on military training of Afghan forces, targeted assassinations of al-Qaeda leaders, and supporting Pakistan's fight against the Taliban, instead of sending new U.S. combat troops to the country. But General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, has called for additional American troops and resources in Afghanistan to wage a stronger counterinsurgency battle against the Taliban. McChrystal said last week in London that a strategy that does not leave Afghanistan in a stable position is probably a "short-sighted strategy." And in a 66-page report assessing the now eight-year-old war, McChrystal warned "failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum" within a year "risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible." Mackenzie Eaglen, a research fellow in national security at The Heritage Foundation, says it is troubling that just six months after President Obama laid out his new spring strategy for Afghanistan, he wants to take a "fundamental re-look" at that strategy. "The problem with that is [that] strategy changes faster than force structure and operations on the ground," she offers. "So just about now with a new commander in place -- General McChrystal -- is Obama's spring strategy actually being carried out in current combat operations. "To upend that right now and pull the plug and say we're going to wait until the end of October, which the White House is saying, is really disruptive on the ground -- and frankly, could set us back even further," she states. Eaglen says Vice President Joe Biden's proposal to preserve the current force levels in Afghanistan and increase Predator drone strikes inside Pakistan may sound good in a soundbite, but since Pakistan is a sovereign country and the U.S. is limited in what it can do without cooperation or approval from Pakistan, that solution is "pretty trite."
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