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Posted on Thursday, July 31, 2008

Commentary: A top general says more troops aren't the answer in
Afghanistan
By Joseph L. Galloway	 | McClatchy Newspapers
There's military slang that seemingly applies to the situation on the
ground in Afghanistan today. The operative acronym is FUBAR - Fouled
Up Beyond All Recognition. That first letter doesn't really stand for
"Fouled," and the R sometimes stands for Repair.

One of the sharper military analysts I know has just returned from a
tour of that sorrowful nation, which has been at war continuously
since the Soviet Army invaded it in late 1979.

Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who retired from the U.S. Army with four stars
and a chest full of combat medals including two Distinguished Service
Crosses, says we can't shoot our way out of Afghanistan, and the two
or three or more American combat brigades proposed by the two putative
nominees for president are irrelevant.

McCaffrey predicts that 2009 will be the year of decision as the
Taliban and a greatly enhanced presence of "foreign fighters" try to
sever roads and halt road construction to strangle and isolate the
capital, Kabul and attack NATO units that are hamstrung by
restrictions and rules of engagement dictated by their home
governments.

More ominously, the general says, we can expect a Taliban drive to
erase Afghanistan's border with Pakistan in the wild frontier
provinces of Pakistan that have provided sanctuary for Taliban and al
Qaida leaders and fighters since Osama bin Laden escaped there in
2001.

The general says that despite the two presidential candidates' sound
bites, a few more combat brigades from "our rapidly unraveling Army"
won’t make much difference in Afghanistan.

Military means, he writes, won't be enough to counter terror created
by resurgent Taliban forces; we can’t win with a war of attrition; and
the economic and political support from the international community is
inadequate. ... (cont)