If you weren't a cynic before reading Dan Froomkin's Huffington Post essay on U.S strategy in Afghanistan, I promise you will be after.
As the Obama Administration continues its debate about how to proceed in Afghanistan, Froomkin asserts the political realities here in the U.S. pretty much dictate the course the president will inevitably take; increase U.S. troop levels, spend a bunch of money we don't have and lose a lot of American lives.
"If political realities were not a constraint, disengagement from Afghanistan would be the best course of action," (Paul R. Pillar, a Georgetown University professor) says. "But I accept the political reality that that is off the table. The president would get pilloried as being a softie and as not having the courage and determination supposedly to stand up for U.S. security. I don't buy any of that criticism myself, but that would be the political reality he's facing."
As Froomkin notes, it's not even about public opinion. The most recent polls on the war in Afghanistan show public opinion decidedly opposed to the war and nearly half those surveyed advocate reducing the number of troops there. Instead, it would be the certain and unanimous pushback from the GOP that will ultimately dictate the U.S. strategy.
I'm sorry to say that sounds exactly right.
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