Resist the Afghanistan escalation

Pub date November 30, 2009
SectionPolitics Blog

By Steven T. Jones

President Barack Obama has reportedly made the decision to send at least 30,000 more US troops to Afghanistan, a move he will explain to the American people in a speech tomorrow evening. I’ll be curious to hear how he justifies an escalation that many experts say will only make things worse, as well as what his exit strategy and financing mechanism will be, which the White House says he’ll announce during the speech.

The escalation is being opposed by everyone from progressive political leaders to soldiers, as well as Afghanistan experts such as Rory Stewart, who was a guest on Bill Moyers Journal in September. You can read or listen to that fascinating broadcast here. Stewart said the escalation will be terrible for both the US and Afghanistan, and that we need to be more realistic and smart about our goals.

“My message is: focus on what we can do. We don’t have a moral obligation to do what we can’t,” Stewart said. But he also correctly predicted that Obama would ignore his advice and escalate anyway: “I’d say President Obama has no choice. If he’s not going to send the troops, he should have stopped the General from sending in the report. He’s now completely boxed in.”

The problem is how Obama framed the decision as a presidential candidate, and one he has compounded as president by not fully repudiating the former regime’s imperial designs. So now is the time for progressives and other opponents of war to redefine this country’s role in the world and put the brakes on a policy that is likely to prove disastrous – to, in essence, save Obama from himself.