Obama and Afghanistan Between the “Center-Left Experts” and Right-Wing Hawks

by Alex Thurston :: Filed Under Middle East / South Asia :: April 6th, 2009 @ 9:29 am EST

This post is part of Get Afghanistan Right’s Break The Silence campaign.

Presidents can’t just snap their fingers and make policy - they maneuver within constraints. So even though I was disappointed by the strategy review on Afghanistan, I don’t blame Barack Obama.

I blame the “experts” - some of them from our side - who not only give the President bad advice, but also reduce the space he has to make tough choices about a conflict with no military solution.

We need to break the silence on Afghanistan - and that includes shining a spotlight on some of the players in the current “debate.”

On the right, we see some familiar characters. John McCain and Joe Lieberman recently called Afghanistan “our must-win war” and urged an open-ended counterinsurgency campaign there. With McCain as their ringleader, neocons at AEI, the brand new Foreign Policy Initiative (better known as PNAC 2.0), and Max Boot also urge escalation.

I’m sure all those right-wingers have President Obama’s - and America’s - best interests at heart.

Turning to the left, we also find a chorus of supporters for escalation - including some who tacked to the right of the administration.

The President said that our strategy is “to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan.” He laid out goals for the next two years, and said that “we are not in Afghanistan to control that country or to dictate its future.”

Lawrence Korb at the Center for American Progress, however, calls for a ten-year commitment to Afghanistan, and for giving the Pentagon the full number of troops it requested. CAP’s recent panel on Afghanistan consisted of Korb (a former Republican), Frederick Kagan (a neocon), Fred Kaplan (a journalist), and Ali Jalali (former Interior Minister of Afghanistan and a rumored presidential candidate). Do these men really represent a center-left American perspective on war?

Meanwhile, the progressive organization VoteVets has consistently supported escalation. Taking a shot at our Get Afghanistan Right coalition, Jon Soltz proclaimed that “Obama Got Afghanistan Right” in the strategy review (who knew all it took to “get it right” was a speech and a white paper?).

Such an array of voices backing the same policy - neocons, Republican leaders like McCain, “moderate” independents like Lieberman, veterans’ organizations, and center-left think tanks - might suggest that the debate on Afghanistan is over. With “liberals yet to roar” on the war (subscription required), many antiwar groups silent, and an “expert” consensus forming, one might assume that ordinary Americans share in that consensus too.

Except that’s not true. Polls say Americans are deeply divided on Afghanistan, depending on how you frame the questions. Comment sections on progressive blogs and newspaper websites pulse with debate about escalation.

Moreover, there is no “expert consensus.” More and more people with deep knowledge and experience, from former Ambassador Dan Simpson to the Carnegie Endowment’s Gilles Dorronsoro to Andrew Bacevich to NSN’s Les Gelb are saying that we can achieve President Obama’s main goal - defeating Al Qaeda - without a costly and counterproductive escalation in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Politicians are debating the war too. A fierce debate took place within the administration regarding strategy in Afghanistan, with Vice President Biden and others arguing for a more limited set of objectives than what we see in the finished product. The 77-strong Congressional Progressive Caucus is holding a series of forums on Afghanistan with the aim of making formal recommendations to the administration. Some members of Congress have gone further, sending a letter asking the President to reconsider escalation.

It is important that Americans - especially progressives - recognize that despite the seeming unanimity among experts from the right and left, there is vigorous debate and dissent around Afghanistan policy. As Jason said earlier this morning:

So, please join me and speak out with your opinion on escalation in Afghanistan. You’ll be in good company - today, bloggers on Daily Kos, Firedoglake, here at The Seminal, and numerous other outlets are expressing their views as well. So please, take a moment and write a blog post on Oxdown Gazette.

And when you’re done, continue your activism. Sign a petition for oversight of the Afghanistan war by Congress. Call your representatives in Washington and share your views directly. And tell your friends about Get Afghanistan Right so more people can get involved.