To: slacker711 who wrote (40436 ) 8/28/2002 12:52:56 AM From: Bilow Read Replies (2) | Respond to Hi slacker711; Re: "However, I think that there is a clear distinction between wars in which we have the choice to fight (for example, Panama and Gulf War I) and those which are thrust upon us. "especially in the cases where you have to debate over whether you should fight or not, War]should be undertaken only ... " Afghanistan was so weak that the number of soldiers required was very small. Hardly much of a war.... in the presence of precise political and military goals. " Eliminate the Taliban, remove the sanctuary for Al Qaeda, establish a new government.... with clear popular support from the American public and the Congress. " All those right wing Republicans and military types were in favor of action in Afghanistan (myself included). A good fraction of the Left was also in favor. Now the Right is split on Afghanistan, and the Left is either against it, or is sitting back and letting us duke it out.There must be a clear exit strategy ... " With Afghanistan, the exit strategy was trivial. Try to rebuild the country into something less hospitable to anti-US terrorists, but in the worst case, if the going gets rough, then simply exit the country and treat them like Iraq. So far the worst case has not appeared, but even if it had, or if it appears in the future, the result would not have been a situation that was less conducive to US security than the situation that obtained before we attacked. That is, Afghanistan was a case that we could not possibly have screwed up the country more (damaging against us) than it was already screwed up (against us). That provided us with a simple exit strategy, one which was not widely discussed, but one which I wrote into SI at the time: "Hope for the best. Do good until it becomes painful, then get out". Iraq is different. Iraq is not (yet) a hotbed of Islamic fundamentalism, but it has some of the earmarks of that kind of problem. And with our allies in the region clearly against our going in (because of fear of their own stability), it is obvious that there is significant room for our making our security worse as a result of going into Iraq, as opposed to leaving the situation with containment.... and an unhesitating will to deploy overwhelming force. " We had this in Afghanistan. With Iraq, it's problematical, in that the administration seems to be looking for an easy way out. That's why the military is arguing for 250,000 man invasions, to make sure that there is overwhelming force deployed.
