How long should we stay in Afghanistan?
When President Obama announced his Afghan strategy at West Point, many commentators argued that the July 2011 draw down date was a mistake. Peter Feaver cites it again in a recent post outlining the various mistakes the administration has made with respect to its Afghan strategy, all in the service of "slowing down the domestic clock" so the United States can stay in Afghan for an unspecified length of time sufficient to achieve an unspecified goal at an unspecified cost.
As I've said, I've come around to the view that announcing the withdrawal date was a mistake as it is ultimately undermining our position there. But the question needs to be asked of those who support a robust counter-insurgency: how long do you want to stay and how much do you want to spend? Is there any time duration and any amount of money (let alone American and NATO casualties) that you would consider excessive to the goal of preventing al Qaeda from using Afghanistan as a future base of operations?
The more the bloom comes off the Iraqi rose, I suspect these questions are going to be posed more persistently to supporters of the Afghan Surge.
(AP Photo)