Afghanistan in review

Thursday, December 16, 2010 - 12:46 PM Share

With the release of President Barack Obama's review of his administration's Afghanistan strategy review, the editors of AfPak Channel asked our own contributing experts to weigh in on the state of the war in Afghanistan. Below is a brief "review," an assessment of the on-the-ground views of international forces in some of Afghanistan's most dangerous areas, a look forward at political reforms, and the possibility of a regional economic strategy to bring stability to the country:

One year later: tactical success without strategic progress - By Caroline Wadhams
The good, the bad, and the ugly in Afghanistan - By Norine MacDonald
A future strategy should place political objectives first - By Scott Worden
Can economics help bring peace to Afghanistan? - By Gerard Russell

MASSOUD HOSSAINI/AFP/Getty Images

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BEINGTHERE

5:30 PM ET

December 16, 2010

Re: his war decisions,where has Obama's head been?

There's no evidence to suspect that either Barack Obama or David Petraeus is gay. But it's hard to accept that the Leader of the Free World (last time I checked, that's Obama) could be so blindly led and so thoroughly drawn under the influence of a small, nondescript general who's not offering him something. Or are we missing what Obama offered the general when, with a sweeping patriotic, selfless gesture, gave up a gravy train as head of central command? Note: selfless is not a Petraeus trait.

Other than that nasty war that will be a major issue for Obama in 2012, what is going on here? There is a great story, and it's not just soft reading about two interesting personalities. Somewhere within, there's an answer to why Obama is so limp about making the right decisions regarding a war that's intellectually and morally wrong for America, and for the rest of the world.