Afghan Strategy Unravelling? No, That Was Years Ago.

Among those whe believe the Afghan War policy is down the toilet and round the u-bend are more than 100 House Democrats who voted against war funding last month, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, a number of internationally based foreign policy commentators and the president of Pakistan. Internal disagreements and confusion between US Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on how substantial will be the US troop withdrawals starting next summer, reflect a false choice. Given the situation and costs in lives and treasure, there seems little doubt that Obama will substantially scale back the U.S. commitment.

Another false debate grew out of the papers recently published on the WikiLeaks Website showing that elements of the Pakistani intelligence agency were cooperating with theTaliban; that was neither surprising nor unexpected.The numbers underscore why this 'strategy' is unsustainable. U.S. casualties this year are likely to double to between 600 and 700, more than during the entire administration of President Bush; July was the deadliest month in the history of the conflict.The Afghan war will cost America $105 billion this fiscal year, more than double what it was costing when Obama took over, and almost twice what the United States is spending on Iraq. Most allies aren’t interested in being part of any long-term plans. The Dutch have withdrawn their soldiers; Canada and Poland will soon do likewise. The largest non-U.S. contingent is the almost 10,000 British troops, and Prime Minister David Cameron has suggested he’d like to pull most of them out in the not-too-distant future. There is hardly any public support in Britain for the debacle.

Yes, We Have No Obamas (Sorry for that one)

There are two overarching factors that make the U.S. policy unsustainable: Public opinion - most Americans now think the war isn’t winnable. And in contrast to the context surrounding the catastrophe in Iraq, the United States is in bad shape financially. Some of the most passionate supporters of the war, such as Senators McCain and the Israel-sponsored Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent are still calling for tax cuts. This is leading to a bad place for Obama and even the normally comatose US public is waking up to the smell of failure and defeat in Afghanistan.