News reports: President Barack Obama to announce sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan

NBC Nightly News and other media outlets report that President Barack Obama is expected to send another 30,000 troops into the teeth of a guerilla war in which the Taliban rebels and Al Qaeda extremists clearly have the upper hand.  This unwelcome development, coupled with the continued flat-lining of the U.S. economy, billions of dollars tossed around like rice at a wedding, and the bitter national chasm over reforming health care, may neuter American militarily capabilities around the world for decades.

It's downright sad when the most recent source of national military pride is not the gradual drawdown of forces in Iraq or steadfast gains in Afghanistan, but the successful shooting of Somali pirates by Navy SEALS after the pirates captured an American vessel. Not surprisingly,  this is what fighting two wars against radical terrorist idealogoy have wrought. In fairness to the current administration, both wars were inherited; and both wars were poorly planned and short-sightedly executed. Yet the main mistake from the beginning was the Bush administration's unwillingness to embrace the basic tenets of the Powell Doctrine.

According to the Powell Doctrine, a country should only go to war when it is ready, able, and willing to bring to the conflict unquestionable, insurmountable power; firepower capable of totally overwhelming the enemy and in the words of retired  Army Chief of Staff Colin Powell, …"cut it off, and kill it". Certainly, the Bush administrations reciprocal attack on Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 appeared to be an easy victory. 

However, American administration leadership interpreted the melting of the Taliban forces into the mountains of Afghanistan as a complete and total defeat of the enemy that had harbored Osama Bin Laden. Subsequently, the administration famously took their eyes off the whirling ball of danger there to give the world ‘Shock and Awe' by invading Iraq in search of non-existent weapons of mass destruction.

Now, eight years later, an American president is faced with the delay of a drawdown in Iraq due to uncertainty over elections due to take place in January; an increasing destabilizing threat to Pakistan and it's nuclear arsenal from the same Taliban fighters and radical Islamists crossing the border into Pakistan for the express purpose of toppling the government and taking control of the nukes. And as if that weren't enough, history is not on America's side in the conflict: Alexander the Great, Britain, and recently the  Soviet Union in the late 1980's were all handily rebuffed by a rebel fighting force that was outnumbered and outgunned. 

Thus, into this macabre, abysmal carnival of terrorist mayhem, President Obama will shift three brigades of troops from Iraq to the front in Afghanistan. The near-term goals are to protect the civilian population, provide training for a military that after 8 years should already be able to stand on it's own; and according to President Obama,"..to provide our fighting men and women the resources with which to finish the job".  According to reports, the President will 'sell' the increase based on clear objectives, measurable milestones, and a definite exit strategy.

 
Clearly this impending development raises several key questions:

• If, as alleged, the war is against Al Qaeda in addition to the Taliban, why then is the U.S. backtracking under the premise that Al Qaeda is still in Afghanistan, when experts have said for years that Osama Bin Laden escaped from the mountains of Tora Bora and crossed over into Pakistan shortly after 2001?

• One of the clear and present requirements will no doubt be that the government of Hamid Karzai reform itself, or else. Karzai has had eight years of American monetary and military support; why should Americans expect change now when all the corrupt denizens like his heroin-trafficking brother---Ahmad Wali Karzai--- have to do is hold on until U.S. troops leave?

• Another oft-repeated requisite of an extended mission is to protect Afghan civilians and win hearts and minds. Eight years is a long getting-to-know you period. If it hasn't happened by now, it's a safe bet it never will. Afghan citizens are aligned with whoever will give them the best deal. From their perspective, America will leave and they will still have to deal with the Taliban revenge, so why change now? 

• Still another goal will be to ‘take and hold' key cities that the Taliban has already infested. Just one year ago, the Taliban had control of a little over 20% of the country; the latest figures now have them in control of better than 70%. Where will American troops drive them to?  Melt them back into the mountains so they can lie in wait and live to fight another day as they did in 2001; or, drive them further into Pakistan so they can open up a fourth front against a military stretched thin who's soldiers are killing themselves to escape the hellish drudgery of perpetual deployment?

Finally, President Obama is talking about sending 30,000 more troops into a battle supposedly being fought by ‘coalition forces'. If indeed the U.S. is not in this alone, then clearly greater commitments are required of NATO allies that all too often rely on the United States to do the heavy lifting. Britian, France, Japan and the rest of the 'coalition' have no skin in the game. Alienated by the go-it-alone neo-con bulldozer of the Bush Administration, U.S troops number in the tens of thousands, while the most from any one coalition country is 5,000.

Fighting Al Qaeda fueled radical Islamist terrorism is a world problem, and not merely  a regional one.

Clearly Americans near and far should rightfully support our troops. Sons and daughters, Mom's and Dad's have answered the call to fight terrorists and protect and defend the very principles on which America was founded. However, leadership is not only the ability to make the hard calls and sell the rationale to the public as President Obama will do next week; but to also make a decision that allows the United States to rest, regroup, and reinvigorate a fighting force that would be better served leaving Afghanistan to the Taliban and bringing home any of our troops not needed to protect Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.