I'm going to be on the Dylan Ratigan show (MSNBC) this afternoon (the last show I did was on Fox) to talk about how to fix Afghanistan. Here's a preview.
Should the US be in Afghanistan? Absolutely not. Three reasons:
- There's no compelling interest for the US to be in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda isn't there anymore. It's broken as an organization and unable to launch large attacks.
- Our presence in Afghanistan does us more harm than good in two ways. First, our efforts there have pushed Taliban fighters into Pakistan. Second, our drone attacks on Taliban leadership in Pakistan cause a significant number of civilian casualties. Both of these actions destabilize Pakistan which is against our strategic interest.
- We can't afford it. We're broke, running $1.5 trillion deficits as far as the eye can see. This deficit is a real national security problem as opposed to Afghanistan.
What should the strategy in the area be after we withdraw from Afghanistan? Three things:
- Play the role of the spoiler. Ally ourselves with any group that opposes the Taliban, in much the same way we "took" Afghanistan back in 2001.
- Maintain a special operations and drone presence in the area to prevent Al Qaeda from reforming in Afghanistan.
- Take advantage of the opportunity to finally realize the dividend afforded by the end of the Cold War. Cut the US defense budget, currently more than the rest of the world combined, by half.
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