Commentary: Pulling Out Troops from Afghanistan

By Paul Reitan

Buffalo, NY – I was 13 years old when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. With a brother in the navy I followed the war pretty closely. We all did. 18 months later the US had landed in North Africa and the victory there was complete. In the Pacific, by then, the Japanese expansion had been reversed and island hopping in the South Pacific and the Aleutians had begun.

In 1941 before we entered the war we had virtually no army. Much of our navy got destroyed. But 18 months later, from almost nothing, the US had become a major factor in the war - powerful army, navy, and marines.

I recall this now because of the plan president Obama outlined on December 1st for Afghanistan.

Frankly, I think the prospects are about nil for what we might call victory - some sort of good and successful government with a functioning police force and army to insure order in Afghanistan. After seven years under the Bush administration Obama inherited a hopeless situation. So I think the best thing we could do now is to pull out as quickly as is safely possible for our troops.

But that was not an option left open to the president. General McChrystal, with his very un-soldierly public claim that "victory" would be assured if he got a big influx of new US forces, made the wisest option impossible. With an utterly weak and utterly corrupt government in Kabul, General McChrystal and the ambassador, General Eichenberry, have worse than nothing to work with. The NATO forces can fight, people on both sides can be killed, but what kind of victory - peace and stability - can possibly be achieved?

Despite that, Obama was left with no politically viable possibility but to send a big influx of US forces to Afghanistan. We all know what he would have been accused of if he had said - enough!

Obama's wisdom, however, shows in setting the 18 month time line to provide for training of the Afghan army and police - a process that supposedly was begun and continued under the Bush administration.

18 months. When I was a young teenager the US, in less than 18 months, went from nearly no military to the army, navy, and marines that were turning World War II around. So if it is possible in Afghanistan at all, it should be possible in 18 months to train our replacements, the Afghans, and we should leave.

Obama inherited an impossible war that, initially, in 2001 - 2002, might have been able to provide the opportunity for a reasonably stable, functioning nation. That opportunity was lost. Corruption was allowed to replace the Taliban. The necessary elements of a successful nation were not built. Instead - Iraq.

So, short of leaving as quickly as possible, I think Obama has come up with the next best plan. Give President Karzai and his government 18 months to clean themselves up. Use the 18 months to try really hard to recruit and train the replacements for NATO forces. McChrystal gets his big influx of troops, his opportunity to suppress opposition, clear space, provide control, and to form an Afghan army. Maybe it will be a stunning success.

If it fails and Afghanistan still has a dishonest, weak government, a useless army and corrupt police, then we know it's a lost cause and we should stop the occupation - stop the loss of lives.

18 months should be enough. I know it can be if a people and their government want it to be.

Listener-Commentator Paul Reitan is a professor emeritus at he University at Buffalo.