Petraeus tries to steer toward Afghanistan success

Gen. David Petraeus already is making his mark on Afghanistan. At his confirmation hearing for his new post, he showed he knows he has to avoid ruffling feathers here if we are to defeat the tyrants and terrorists over there.

The Daily Beast:

In his opening statement, Petraeus did not shirk the one question—in fact, perhaps, the only question—that the assembled senators, the American public, and America's enemies in Afghanistan and Pakistan were truly interested in hearing about: Would the United States stick hard and fast to the date for withdrawal from Afghanistan announced by President Obama, to wit, July 2011? To this question, Gen. Petraeus said the following, and said so in a manner that, while not completely transparent, was translucent enough to anyone in the strategy business, and as clear in its message as his subordinate position can allow him to be: “As the president has stated, July 2011 is the point at which we will begin a transition phase in which the Afghan government will take more and more responsibility for its own security. As the president has also indicated, July 2011 is not a date when we will be rapidly withdrawing our forces and switching off the lights and closing the door behind us.” In other words: July 2011 is the embryonic beginning of the end, but we will not state categorically when the end will come, and in what form.

Victory question. There remains a problem of clarifying what victory in Afghanistan would look like. Right now, Afghanistan is building up its democratic institutions, and that's promising. But even if Afghanistan is turned into an oasis of freedom over the next five of 10 years, it could be overwhelmed overnight by Pakistan's political volcano next door.

Maybe enough Pakistanis will tire of the glory-hungry radicals in their midst, and bring the deadly nonsense down to a tolerable level. I'm sure Petraeus wants that, but it won't be easy to incorporate it into his planning. Except indirectly, the Afghanistan "surge" does not include Pakistan.

Frank Warner

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