Will Democrats Support Continued Afghanistan Failure?

The stakes of Barack Obama’s perepetually upcoming decision about what to do in Afghanistan just became a great deal higher, as the United Nations announced it is pulling out half of its staff from the American-occupied country, and may soon withdraw completely. The reason: Despite the fact that American soldiers outnumber Taliban fighters by a heavy ratio, violence in Afghanistan is increasing.

Obama is being pressured by Republicans, and some Democrats to increase the number of soldiers in Afghanistan, as if the Americans already there were outnumbered. Not all Democrats are following along with the plan to deal with the military failure in Afghanistan by simply throwing more soldiers at the problem.

U.S. Representative Lynn Woolsey proposes a shift in strategy rather than a simple amplification of a the flawed strategy of the last eight years. In a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives, she reflected on the growing chaos in Afghanistan, saying,

“We can’t blame the troops for this, of course. They continue to fight with tremendous skill and with bravery. They do everything our Nation asks of them.

So what’s to blame? It’s our strategy. It’s a strategy which has relied almost exclusively on military action for over 8 years while ignoring the critically important political, economic, and cultural aspects of the conflict. Yet President Obama is now being urged to double down on the military-only policy that has failed us and send in another 40,000 troops.

If we go down that road, what can the American people expect? They can expect higher troop levels, higher casualty rates, and many years of war that can end up costing us over a trillion dollars. Even if we do all that, the odds will still be stacked against us. That’s not a strategy for success, Mr. Speaker. I think we can do better.

If we want to succeed in Afghanistan , we must change the way we do business there. Instead of fighting extremists after they have gotten a foothold, let’s invest our resources on what would prevent violent extremism from taking root in the first place. That includes economic development, jobs, reconstruction, education, health care, civil affairs, and diplomacy. All would help stabilize Afghanistan.”

Let’s hope that President Obama can come up with a creative strategy of true change in Afghanistan along the lines suggested by Representative Woolsey, rather than the stuck-in-a-rut ideas the Republicans and the right wing of the Democratic Party.