Afghan Policy

This New York Times article pointed out just how blatantly corrupt the Afghan government is, from top to bottom. Nicholas Kristof points out that support for the Taliban is often in response to this corruption and that the country is deeply divided ethnically. Steve Coll makes the point that we need to think about what our goals are in Afghanistan. In his mind, they are preventing the Taliban from taking over again and getting rid of Al Qaeda. The former is unlikely and more troops in Afghanistan are largely irrelevant since Al Qaeda is in Pakistan and elswhere. Coll also makes the point that counterinsurgency measures do not work unless there is local government cooperation. I think that any increase in troops to help Karzai police his country should be preceded by steps he takes to halt the corruption, which should start with the new election on November 7. The fact that there is going to be a new election is the result of Obama not doing what Dick Cheney thinks he should do. And let's get over the idea that this is a win/lose situation. That was part of the folly of the Bush position in Iraq. We can only expect incremental gains in Afghanistan and those will only happen if their government limits corruption. It is not our job to make every country better if only because it is impossible.