During the online-only portion of yesterday’s Fox News Sunday panel discussion, the boss makes the point that the Obama administration, if it continues to fight the war in Afghanistan but fails to adequately resource the commanders there, may be setting the country up for another Blackhawk Down-style disaster. As he says, one can make the case for a withdrawal from Afghanistan — withdrawal is a strategy. And one can make the case for an escalation along the lines of what McChrystal is requesting — counterinsurgency is a strategy. But keeping U.S. troops there at the current force level when the commander on the ground is asking for more forces in order to execute the mission he’s been tasked with…that isn’t a military strategy, it’s a political strategy. The worst case scenario — strategically and politically — is that U.S. forces remain in Afghanistan without the resources they need to win the war or even to defend themselves and their bases. When our last Democratic president failed to properly resource the fight in Somalia during his first year in office, the results were catastrophic not only for the troops on the ground but for the country. The Battle of Mogadishu was the catalyst for a U.S. withdrawal from Somalia, a withdrawal that was itself the catalyst for the rise of al Qaeda, which came to see the United States as a “weak horse.”
