Cordesman - The Death Of A Strategy

Cordesman should have entitled his piece 'Death Of Another Strategy'.

Even before President Barack Obama announced the new strategy, there was debate in Washington over cutting back on the initial “surge” of troops—whether there would be enough U.S., allied, and Afghan forces to clear and hold the key districts in a timely manner in a war that was already deeply unpopular.Moreover, in announcing the new strategy, Obama set the first of a series of political and arbitrary deadlines. The rationale was then the need to win domestic political support from a Congress with a Democratic majority, and the president was careful to say his deadline was conditions based. The fact was, however, that the new strategy triggered fears in Afghanistan and the region of a precipitous withdrawal, as well as expectations in the United States and the West, that soon began to make deadlines a key part of an exit strategy. LINK.