George Will Takes on NeoCons on Afghanistan

Finally the GOP is moving in Ron Paul’s direction. I knew they would come to their senses eventually. They are even lock step behind Paul with the Fed audit.

Hurray! for George Will. He’s right we must get out of Afghanistan. Thank you for your courage.

George Will simply can NOT get it right. He was a staunch and stubborn supporter of the Iraq War, but ultimately he openly admitted that his Iraq War support and the reasons for it were horribly wrong and mistaken. In effect, George Will supported the wrong war. The REAL war, the war that should have been the sole US Middle East war (conflict), is and always has been Afghanistan, where the Taliban, Al Quida and Bin Laden have carved out a sanctuary. Now, George Will thinks we should shrink away from (abandon) the Afghanistan War, in a humiliating, resounding defeat, in the utterly mistaken, misguided belief that the US can avoid the appearance of having been “resoundingly defeated” by simply finessing the withdrawal with ruse, flim-flam, fraudulent rhetoric to the effect that we have accomplished our mission by helping Afghanistan carry on the war that the US is abandoning as futile. George Will and the Republican right are so profoundly witless, opaque, dangerous and incompetent that we should keep them out of US International politics until the danger has passed. Following George Will’s extended string of horrible mistakes would have us fighting an Iraq War that has always been utterly pointless and irrelevant, a war that has accomplished absolutely NOTHING, while abandoning the only war that is “justifiable” and urgently necessary to defeat the terrorists who deem Afghanistan to be a safe haven. If the Terrorists could have conjured up a strategy for total victory, they would have followed George Will’s recipe to the letter. George Will and the Republicans are either “on drugs” and need to get off them, or they are “off their meds” and need to get back on them. And George Will’s record is absolutely abominable. Why does anyone even solicit his opinion?

George Will is the William F. Buckley of our time. I wholly and heartily agree with him and his logic. He is not and never has been a neo-con. I read his column and only agree with him about 20% of the time, but I recognize him as being a good thinker and a worthy voice to listen to.

How could you take any of George Will’s advice seriously. He gives his wise, in his arrogant opinion when to get out of a war. But he gets very upset at the idea of the president advising children to sneeze into their sleeve! What did he say to Nancy Reagan when she advised children “Just Say No”?Please don’t expect me to take anything he says seriously. I am a 75 year old southern woman and I think racism has a lot to do with the uproar. Our country will never get it right, at least not in my lifetime.

The American effort is based on a major political confusion. We are not fighting ‘terrorism’ or ‘al-Qaeda’ in Afghanistan. We are in fact fighting the Pashtun tribes, which support a variety of political organizations, including the neo-Taliban. All of the scholarly evidence indicates that the neo-Taliban is not fighting a transnational jihad against western civilization but is fighting to rid Afghanistan of foreign forces. Without a proper understanding of these political factors, the US military mission is bound for disaster — as it is based on a fatally flawed assessment of what we are up against.

As a long time fan of George Will, I think that after so many years being the lonely voice of reason on ABC, he has become as soft-headed as the leftys he sits with every Sunday.

When the heck is George going to wise up and ban that shrill left wing Katrina person from his show? She looked like she just got out of bed this morning when she was on. She’s a real live loony and people in this country don’t need to be seeing her as some sort of role model on TV.

How can we walk away from two-Muslim countries that hate us? A better question is, “How can we not?”. We “walked away” from New Orleans, away from health care for all, regulation of Wall St…on & on…It’s real easy to walk away.

Will spent his credibility this week, and now rests with others that lost their grip, like Ridge, Powell, Noonan, etc. As for those other ‘republicans’ that might not make themselves irrellevant before 2010, we’ll take care of you at the polls and through media choices. Freedom is not for the faint of heart or quitters. Next…

no country has ever been victorious in Afghanistan…the Russians were driven out, and so shall be the fate of the US if they continue there…the great US marines cannot fight and win the type of war that is being fought in that country…

George Will was correct to support the Iraq War and now to call for a pullout of Afghanistan. Iraq was winnable, in that it has a logical conclusion and benefit for US military power (most of the benefits are protection of the world’s oil reserves). Afghanistan is and will always be a quagmire, pure and simple.
I differ in George Will’s demand that a pullout happen right now. Obama and the left have upped the ante. Instead of accepting the conclusion that we had torn up the Taliban and sent Al Qaeda packing to the mountains, Obama and the left now want to make Afghanistan into another Iraq victory, as if they are jealous of Bush’s successful Iraq surge.
Since the ante has been upped, we’ll have to slog it through, until Obama and the left are defeated in 2012 and some Nixonian Republican figure will have to clean it all up with some sort of “peace with honor” nonsense. History repeats itself over and over, doesn’t it?

After years of supporting Bush’s Oil War in Iraq, George Will now wants to pull out of Afghanistan, where the focus should have been 8 years ago. Now he wants to pin this new quagmire on the Obama administration, which inherited this conflict from its predecessor. And it is politically convenient, because when the terrorists in Afghanistan strike again, who will everyone blame? This is nothing more than a desperate attempt by the right to discredit our democratically elected president.

G. WILL IS CORRECT: AN AMAZING AFGAN MOTHER OF 20 CHILDREN,LIVING IN POVERTY WAS INTERVIEWED BY A FEMALE WESTERN WOMAN REPORTER AND THE AFGAN MOTHER OF 20 SAID ‘YOU WESTERN WOMAN ARE WEAK,AND NO MATTER HOW MANY OF MY CHILDREN YOU KILL IN OUR COUNTRY,I CAN HAVE TEN MORE,SO HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN (WIN?) INVADE OUR COUNTRY AND MAKE WAR ON US?
FOLKS GEORGE WILL IS RIGHT,IN FACT GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD HAVE AGREED, SINCE IT’S A ‘NUMBERS GAME’ IN AFGANISTAN WITH FAR TOO FEW EXPENSIVLY TRAINED AMERICAN SOLLDIERS FIGHTING THIS ‘BABY MACHINE’ VIA AFGAN WOMEN AND MEN FAR TOUGHER AND CHEAPER,CHURNING OUT RELIGIOUS FREEDOM FIGHTERS,PENNIES ON THE DOLLAR!!. IN FACT,FREEDOM FIGHTING AMERICANS DEFEATED THE BRITISH BECAUSE WE HAD CHEAPER-TOUGHER -MORE DETERMINED ‘RELIGIOUS’ MINDED PATRIOTS WHO HAD THEIR LAND/ FAMILY AT STAKE!!
IS NOT RUSSIA,THE BEST EXAMPLE,AS RUSSIAN MOTHERS PROTESTED ENOUGH VIA THEIR SONS KILLLED IN AFGANISTAN WHO WERE ALSO NOT ‘AS TOUGH AS AFGAN MEN- WOMEN’WHEN THEIR COUNTRY WAS INVADED.
GIVE THE MASSIVE AMOUNT OF POOR AND RELIGIOUS COMMITED PEOPLE-GUNS AND THERE IS NO WAY TO STOP SUCH, LESS YOU NUKE THEM,AND THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN,UNLESS YOU EQUIP THOSE RIDICULOUS ‘OBAMA DRONES’ WITH A NUKE WARHEAD.THE PRES CAN SAY WHAT THE YES-MEN GENERALS SAY ‘IT’S EFFECTIVE COLLATERAL DAMAGE,’USING THE DRONES,BUT NUKE DRONES KILLING THE MASIVE AFGAN- MILLIONS WOULD NOT BE TOLERATED.THEY WIN,BECAUSE MANY MORE ARE WILLING TO DIE,AND WE ARE-NOT!
JUST LEAVE……IT’S THAT SIMPLE AND LET THIS COUNTRY LIVE IN THE DARK AGES,WE AMERICANS WERE LEFT ALONE BY THE BRITISH,SO WHATS THE DIFFERENCE??

One only need read Steve Coll’s “Ghost Wars” and “The Great Game” by Peter Hopkirk to realize the futility of a “war” in Afghanistan, the elusiveness of a definition of what might constitute a “victory,” and the total absence of any strategic value in that region. Get out now and let whoever wants it, have it.

Gen Krulak is a typical Republican general officer, a Bush supporter, one of “Bush’ Stars.”
If you can find any commments he made similar to this on Iraq or, on Afghanistan prior to Obama becoming president, then listen to him.
Otherwise, consider the source.
Somalia was important to these folks when Bush I sent the US in, but it was no longer important when Clinton took over.
Same deal.

He is absolutely correct in his analysis, probably the last intelligent republican left. Look we dont need to send our military and waste the lives of soldiers and billions of dollars that we could be putting to much better use. We already spend billions on the CIA, NSA and countless other so called “intelligence agencies”. Capturing Bin Laden and the terrorists is a police and intelligence matter which is where Bush & co. got it wrong from the beginning. By all means send spys, hit squads, interpol, whatever it takes but get our troops out of this quagmire before our country is bankrupt and broken.

Ever notice that bloggers have a an obvious answer to everything and yet still think the Taliban are Marxist instead of being theocratic. This is a rhetorical statement.

Yes there will be plenty of brass on the side of George Will.There will also be plenty of America. And I suspect that the brass support will increase as those brass start thinking of their possible political futuress

Joe – “Bin laden has no idea what he is messing with.”
Really?
And where is he?

It would have been nice to win in Afghanistan, to deny al Qaeda a refuge, just as it would have been nice to catch Bin Laden. But the 8 years that W. and Cheney wasted after 9/11 appear to make that impossible. We had better spend our money beefing up the defenses at home.
However, the real killer is that W. and Cheney allowed N. Korea to openly develop nukes, not only a plutonium process but also a uranium process. They are now busily exchanging material and information with Iran, who will have their own uses for it. What a disaster. Merely losing Afghanistan will be the least of our problems.

George Will lost his credibility on assessing military strategy when he supported the invasion of Iraq, which was unjustified and has permanently destabilized that country. Now we give billions to Iraqi Sunni thug to keep them from attacking us. We have never ever put the resources into Afghanistan to deal with the real threat there. And now the Taliban have destabilized Pakistan as well. Will’s A.D.D. attitude is typical of the immediate gratification attitude prevailing the U.S. Give Gates and Patraeus the resources they need and give them at least the amount of time (if not money) that was given Bush’s war in Iraq. After all, an unstable Afghanistan was partly our doing to begin with, and this is where the 9/11 threat came from. In case Will and others forget, Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Afghanistan’s instability had everything to do with it.

Say what you will, but George Will has put the question for and square. Debate it if you care to, but the question is only get louder!

I am in a disagreement with George Wills…where has he been all this time. Iraq war was a mistake, there were no weapons of mass destruction and no Al Quaeda. However, the Taliban and the Al Quaeda were in Afganistan and planning attacks. Bush focused on the wrong war, didn’t send enough men and supplies into Afghanistan when it was totally winnable. Now we’ve wasted time, lives and troops in the wrong area. Obama is only doing what should have been done in the first place. If the Taliban and Al Quaeda succeed in taking over Afghanistan the first and immediate plan will be to take over Pakistan and they won’t hesitate to use the nukes on Americans no matter what your conservative or liberal views are.

It’s amazing how the armchair strategists and the public just want to give up and go home. The US started in Afghanistan, got distracted with Iraq, ran the Iraqi forces up to twice as many as in Afghanistan now, and turned the tide with a 30K surge… and now with half as many in Afghanistan, these talking heads want to run away and let fester the very place it all started. Afghanistan is that different from Iraq?
B.S. Colin Powell should be prosecuting the war… his logic, if you’re going to wage a battle, you go in with overwhelming force and get it done, get it secure and -then- pull back. So, if possible, just solidify our gains in Iraq, shift the forces to Afghanistan and finish there as we have in Iraq. Failing? In Afghanistan, yes, because we have half the commitment we should have… that we placed in Iraq. It’s simply mathematics.
Otherwise… don’t b.s. us with this ‘remote control’ administration of the fight… just pull out and go home and admit the defeat, you armchair guessers.

Mr. Will: I said this to Stephanopolus so I will tell you. Obama can save the country a lot of money by firing his economic advisor, his war advisor, his health care administrator and hire you. You seem to have all the answers on these topics. I think President Obama is doing the right thing and I feel he will continue this course until the end of the year and then pull out if no success is evident. He never liked the war and this is not of his choosing. And as to your comment on him staying out the children’s education. I think he is a perfect example of what a good education can do and he has long been an advocate of a good education. All he wanted to do is to tell them to stay in school so the no. of dropouts would decrease and maybe some would not get into gangs, leading to jail. Shame on you for such a smart man. Shame on you….I thought you were smarter than that.

Bin Laden’s ultimate goal on September 11th wasn’t just to bring the towers down. His goal was to draw the West into a long, expensive, protracted, bloody battle. Eight years later it seems he succeeded greater than he ever could have imagined. The war that was supposed to be fought was Afghanistan. It devolved into the Iraq war and soon Afghanistan became an after thought. The Taliban and Al Qaeda core leadership fled to Pakistan. The war in Afghanistan was lost years ago. A more clandestine, forensic operation needs to be put in place. The blunt force of more troops won’t solve the problem. The effort needs to become more surgical and covert. And US Armed Forces need to get out of the region all together. In Iraq and Afghanistan.

Considering the full frontal attack that Republicans have led to undermine the Obama presidency, any advice or feigned support from them should be taken with a great deal of caution and suspicion. If they are sincere in their support, then it is insulting because of their relentless belittling of him on their news channel.

George Will is 1000% right. One, we have no clear goals in Afrans. If we do, the President has to articulate them; two, there is no way we can provide security to Afrans without providing over 400K troops which is impossible for us to do without the draft; three, the people support the Taliban and not our puppet government; four, the American people are sick and tired of us playing international cop while we have very real problems at hom.
The list goes on and on but unless Obama wants to be a one term President, he will withdraw from AFrans and soon.

I did not vote for George Will nor do I believe he is evaluating the situation as clearly as President Obama and his cabinet are capable of doing. George Will has been on both sides of this issue and passionately reacts to information that should be analized with a cooler head. George Will has a personal POV and is abusing his position in the media to create confusion and more “misinformation”. The media should stick to delivering the news and stop giving us their opinion on issues that should be left to our elected leaders and our own philosophies.

While I have never agreed with George Will on almost anything, I think he is right in this instance. Why are we there is the question we should be asking. We are not at war with the Afghan people themselves, in fact, as much as despise them we are not at war with the Taliban, we are at war with Bin laden and Al Quida and they are long gone from Afghanistan. We took our eyes off the ball by our “little” foray into Iraq, then mishandled it and lost our opportunity to get the real purpetrators of 9/11.

Exiting from Afghanistan
Background: Afghanistan has 50 political parties, independent tribal and religious leaders and warlords, over 60 Pashtun tribes and more than 400 sub-clans. One may become the corrupted leader and Western anointed president of Kabul, as is president Karzai, but that is if you get 50% of the votes. To get 50% of the national votes with 50 political parties is impossible. The election system was set up to prevent a true democracy from emerging and national unity. Our presence only supports the make-believe corrupted government that Karzai leads while bleeding our own nation’s treasury, youth, and international credibility, with absolutely no chance of a possible victory.
We should then take full strategic advantage of this disunity that has always existed and will probably continue for generations to come to make our exit and at the same time weaken the Taliban movement. So what do we do? We capitalize on the disunity by creating monetarily rewarded “surge” armed political and treaty likes movements as we did in Iraq to pacify the more uncontrollable areas.
We support the more persuasive or friendlier independent tribal leaders, warlords and tribes by providing weapons, training, economic assistance and international diplomatic political recognition and treaties directed at weakening the Taliban religious political movement and future Al-Qaida resurgence.
The concept is not that radical. Our agencies have done this and continue to do this throughout Central America and other larger countries using different formats and in most cases were temporarily successful at creating instability to unfavorable political governments.
The treaties grant warlords power within their jurisdictions and attempt to unify the powers for the common good of Afghanistan. The treaties incorporate measurable milestones and events so that we do not continue to support those warlords who clandestinely support the Taliban cause.

As much as I would like to see all the GI’s out of harms way I can not believe a word that comes out of George wills mouth or pen. Eight short months ago this man was defending the policies of the Bush administration as they related to Iraq and Afghanistan and using every opportunity to be dismissive of President Obamas foreign policy. Now all of a sudden he is for leaving Afghanistan? This is not sincere analysis but politically based maneuvering to oppose anything president obama does. The letter from this general is demonstrative that some guys made it to flag rank because of their ability to use a gun and not their ability to handle the more complex battle field of today.This general reminds me of the caricatures shown of guys like him in urban warfare films

The fact that Mr. Stephanopoulos reports the story above as though it is breaking news and refrained from questioning Will about his sudden change of heart when Will began suggesting it was time to leave both Iraq and Afghanistan is more telling than the sudden switch in Will’s opinion.
First, I frankly don’t care what Will believes about anything. He consistently uses lies and false statistics in both his columns and on This Week. He is an opportunist, pure and simple.
It’s a pity that Will didn’t have the balls to be against both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars when it might have counted. Now that the polls show that these wars are unpopular, Mr. Will has decided they are lost causes. As someone with family who’s served several times in Iraq as a member of the National Guard, I am disgusted by both Will and Stephanopoulos. Neither one of these “journalists” did their due diligence in 2002 when they knew that invading Iraq was wrong and neither one of them have the balls to admit that they are responsible for my brother’s emotional problems, loss of his business and family because he wasted more than 2 and a half years of his life fighting in a war that was designed to get the Republicans re-elected.
I have always been an Independent and voted for both Republicans and Democrats in the past. I will never vote for another Republican again. They are liars and their lies are much more dangerous than the lies of the Democrats. My family knows what Republican lies can do. And for George Will to sanctimoniously decide that he is now against the wars, without ever admitting his culpability…well let’s just say, I’d love to see him spend a few months in the trenches with some of his “beloved” military grunts. Using the same armor they use and the same faulty weapons they use of course. I know many families who would not shed a tear should he meet the fate thousands of our men and women in the armed forces have met during the past 8 years. Shame on all of the Washington press–they are nothing more than hacks who I will never trust again.

This is another case where the right has to lead. Obama had a chance to do what was right, lead. He failed.
This is actually a traditional conservative issue, avoid foreign entanglements. Bush was a radical and many on the right followed him down this neocon (actually very liberal) path of thinking state violence can solve problems.
Again, the sad thing is the Obama again failed to lead. He just keeps following Bush’s shadow.

Good to see the mainstream conservatives turn back to Ron Paul’s advocacy of a foreign policy of freedom.

I don’t feel good at all about the Taliban, Bin Laden or Al Qaeda living within driving distance of the only Islamic nuclear weapon (Pakistan).
Bump George Will, We need to be there at least on the Eastern Border of Afghanistan.

George Will is not expressing support for liberalism in his latest editorial proposing an Afghanistan withdrawal. Will is expressing an honest conservative view, which in this case happens to coincide with that of most liberals. Everything Will has said is absolutely correct and it’s time Obama faced reality. The war in Afghanistan has been a no win situation for the US for some time and withdrawal needn’t be a loss of America. Use of hunter-kill teams, drones, cruise missiles, along with realistic non-military policies is the route to follow. I can’t believe no one at State of Defense has proposed buying the Afghan poppy crop. The cost of purchase at almost any price would ultimately be less then the present ill founded military strategy. Afghanistan has never been a nation state as westerners understand the concept and we will not be able to create a unified Afghanistan until the majority of Afghans relate to their country rather then their clan or tribe. The war may have had a valid cause in the beginning but once Bush’s ineptitude let al Qaeda leadership slip sway, our reasons for being in Afghanistan were no longer valid. All we are doing now is squandering our money and power in much the same way the Soviets did two decades ago.

For once,George Will is absolutely correct for whatever reason. It certainly is not because he knows anything about the military or military strategy. There is no military solution in Afghanistan, period. The neocons who want to stay are the same people who hid from the draft or refused to serve their country in the military when it was their turn. In short, a bunch of cowards who are happy to send others off to fight the wars, but would not let their children go.

While I don’t agree with much of what Nick says, I do agree with his statement, “I don’t see a happy ending to this.” Are we going to repeat the mistakes of the past? Will we spill the blood of thousands more of our young people for a nation that hates them? I say no. Enough is enough. Someone said that a people deserve their government. If the Afghanis want to embrace or expel the Taliban, that is their decision to make. If al quaeda regroups in Afghanistan after our departure, then we can deal with that through intelligence and special ops. I say, “let’s roll,” and leave them to their own destiny.

amazing how assertive the media gets nowadays. we MUST get out of Afghanistan. chuckle. a good deal of the blame for BEING there is on the media, for allowing Bush to wage two wars for close to 8 years with hardly a wimper of dissent from the press. back page coverage. now we get deMANDS from arm chair journalists no less. as much as I agree with him it’s hard to jump on a fair weather bandwagon.

Nobody has mentioned the status and fate of WOMEN AND GIRLS in Afghanistan — IMO these innocents and the principle of gender equality are worth fighting for, as much as terrorism and heroin suppression. If we don’t, the fundamentalist Sharia Laws will return to oppress all women in that desolate country. And let’s not forget, those horrendous influences will continue to spread to Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and other vulnerable states.

George is still hard to take seriously because he’s off his rocks most the time. I mean today he may be right about Afghanistan but he complained about Obama giving an address to students and the health secretary explaining how to cough to prevent the spread of germs. So he’s halfway moving the GOP forward but partly still saying their same nonsense and smears.

The US needs to find a strategy fight Al Qaeda and their global agenda without trying to defeat the Taliban and their domestic Afghan agenda.

F. Foiles has some right ideas. Afghanistan historically has had it’s own fully functional tribal laws for centuries and it served quite well. They really don’t want or need our imposition in that regard. We need to empower the ethnic Pashtun tribes, Durani, Waziri, Afridi, etc. to regain the authority that they lost after Russia’s invasion and our importation of Arab radicals. This upheaval laid the groundwork for Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Tribal leaders are often referred to in the news media as “Warlords” which is probably only because their people are always armed. However, that’s the traditional norm for Pashtun tribes.
In brief, we need to strengthen the traditional tribal system, decentralize their government, and empower them to drive what remains of the Arab radicals from their lands.

…And thusly was George Will ejected from the Republican party. Disagree with a single issue and you’re ghost. That’s how conservatives are these days… either you’re with ‘em 100% or you’re the enemy, period. They don’t like us “thinking” types.

For the first time in my adult life I agree with George Will— that is very scary. But Will is right, its a no win war. One just need to look at history and ask the Russians among others why they couldn’t win in Afghanistan. I am afraid it is going to become BO’s Vietnam— which is way worse than Iraq. I wonder if BO will have the ####### to say no to the military. Somehow I doubt it.

Que? Will taking on Conservatives? Wow. If we had done our job in Afghanistan instead of going into Iraq (Bush’s biggest blunder) we could have gotten the job done and have most of our servicemen and women home. Instead, more than 4,000 of our brave troops were sacrificed needlessly in a country that had nothing to do with 911. Should we get out of Afghanistan NOW while we still have a job to do? No, sorry Will.

Read the letter that the neocons sent to Obama and see if you can figure out what they’re talking about. What strategy has recently been devised that is going to win the war? As far as I have read, we’re still making the same stupid mistakes by killing civilians right and left. Also, what in heaven’s name does fighting in Afghanistan have to do with “keeping America safe?” Are we threatened with an invasion of Afghanis? They don’t even have a navy! How are they going to get their soldiers to the US?
And as far as saving them from tyranny, a theocracy with restrictions on women is the very same thing that the right wing here is trying to institute, for crying out loud! Maybe these neocons ought to start at home before they go abroad.
They really don’t want Obama to tell the people the “cost of defeat” because there isn’t any to amount to anything. The cost in American blood and American taxpayers’ money is much more than we’ll ever get out of Afghanistan, and they don’t even have any oil! All they have is territory to build a pipeline across to avoid Iran and Russia.

Hey George, were was you the last eight years? You people said nothing while Bush drug us into wars in the wrong place and also with out the proper man power and equipment.

Today, September 06, 2009, 4 hours ago | sandy
For the first time in my adult life I agree with George Will— that is very scary. But Will is right, its a no win war. One just need to look at history and ask the Russians among others why they couldn’t win in Afghanistan. I am afraid it is going to become BO’s Vietnam— which is way worse than Iraq.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Don’t worry Sandy. This time will be different because of one very important technology…Drone aircraft. This war will be won by thousands and thousands of drones flying the skies over the mountains in Afghanistan. Many of the drone ‘pilots’ will be remote-stationed operators as far away as America. Many of these guys will go home to dinner each night after ‘fighting’ in the battlefield all day long…from their office!
Whereas we supplied the Afghan resistance with Russian made rockets and missiles to take out their helicopters, planes and tanks (and breaking the will of the Russians), this time the Russians will only be able to sell our arms to take out much less costly drones…and with no loss of American life! And, many of the drones cost much less than the missiles today. In the future they will be a fraction of the cost.
Also, the drones are easily able to see the enemy (who is looking for them) without being seen. It will become common knowledge amongst the Taliban that it is futile to fight our forces with drones providing a hidden view of all their movements. We will be able to push them very deep into the mountains. That will be their only sanctuary.

Just scanning through these comments it looks (anecdotally, I didn’t count) like 50% or more are spewing insults and/or attacking Will (and Van Den Huevel whom I’ve always found to be in complete contradiction to my views on everything, but nontheless don’t have any personal opinion of one way or the other not knowing her). I’m personally a huge fan of Will and agree with him about 70-80% of the time, but always respect his analytical and thoughtful perspective. All of these comments accusing or assuming an agenda or simply attacking his intelligence or character should consider what’s being said and get real. Afghanistan is an incredibly complex issue and taking either side of this position is fraught with challenging results. I only hope that the people in control consider all of the opinions of smart people (including Will) in an expedited manner before making any decisions on this or any other issue.

We owe Afghanistan nothing. Either go all-in and get it done or leave, not this just enough to suffice crap.

A sober look at the facts as they were from 1999 to 2003 when these two wars were planned by Washington think tanks reveals that the wars had no moral basis — they were conceived as strategic chess games and were poorly executed.
They would have been morally wrong, and in violation of international law forbidding agressive war, even if they had been executed “well.”
When serious mistakes like these have been made, they need to be admitted and reversed as soon as possible.
George Will and his friends are terribly late in coming to the table. And his critics, the war party, are in even worse mental shape.

I agree that we should have some way to claim “victory” before pulling out of Afghanistan, but those predicting America would be humiliated if we pulled out forget that the real lesson to states sponsoring terrorism would still be that we’ll invade you for a DECADE, and cause hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties in your land if you mess with us.
My guess is that many commenters also do not know what a “Pyrrhic Victory” is. It’s spending so much money and resources on a victory that it leaves you worse-off than if you had never fought. If we allowed al-Qaeda to set-off one 9-11 type attack per year, it would cost much less than our wars, which are accomplishing nothing in terms of “democratizing” Iraq or Afghanistan. Instead, Iraq is now set up by Bush to become the perfect ally for Iran. Afghanistan is the same mess it’s always been.
Those predicting the downfall of the USA if we withdraw from Afghanistan also apparently don’t remember the “Domino Theory” about Southeast Asia. We were told every Southeast Asian country would fall to communism like dominoes if we pulled out of Vietnam. Thank God Gerald Ford had the courage to do it or we’d still be fighting there and draining national resources.

How many times has George referred to liberals as “neolibs”?

There are no good positions to take on Afghanistan. There are no easy solutions. Idealogical political bashing from either side will accomplish nothing.Neither staying nor leaving is a palatable option.
It was certainly strange that Obama made Afghanistan/Pakistan such an issue in the campaign. He has embraced it since as president, also. It is his war now. He stands the most to loose. I believe it has the potential to be his biggest blunder.The public will progressively oppose drones that continue to kill innocent civilians, American soldiers dying, and endless conflict without progress.
It is now Obama’s war. Focusing on George Will is pointless, except for partisan purposes. The real question is, “What coherent plan does Obama have and why hasn’t he articulated it.
The media will not be able to soft-peddle this issue indefinitely.

I didn’t think we needed to go into Iraq, but when we did, I hoped that it was because Bush had made an assessment based on facts and analysis he had access to. Apparently, he didn’t, as it turned out. Now Obama is escalating the war in Afghanistan. I have my doubts, but he may have some facts and analysis I don’t have. I trust Obama. So, even if I have been burned before, I’ll go along with his leadership and hope for the best.

This “Left/Right” crap is killing and dividing our Nation! I call it the great “Continental Divide”! Are we Americans going nuts? In WW2 the country was completely together with one mind and we won the greatest victory in modern History! Today, we are split apart..Right vs Left and conserves vs Libs. It;s madness..we have so many enemies that hate our guts and want to harm US-A, and here we are bickering about who is right and who is left (or wrong)! In my opinion, both are wrong. Bush and company were correct in fighting “terror” but he fought it all wrong! Iraq was a mistake! Getting Ossama was the goal..don’t invade these hell-houses. Now the Dems (Obama)are making the same mistakes. We better get our USA act together..why don’t I think we will.

George Stephanopoulos is a made member of the two-party fraud who is posting this tripe to distract from the fact that there is hardly any difference between the democan and republicrat parties. Notice how he focuses on the “neocons” while conveniently forgetting that Obama and the democans are following the same policies. It would be well to remember what CIA Director William Colby said about the media: “The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media.” Stephanopoulos is a paid government propagandist.

Too bad George Will didn’t come to this conclussion a year and a half ago when Ron Paul was running for President.
Obama is continuing the Bush foreign policy and spending spree. We need legitimate independents like Will to continue to point this out.
Vote Third Party America… for your children’s future.

The problem with bipartisan wingnuts is that they screw onto any side that’ll take them.

I do not understand why anyone thinks George Will has any credibility. Is not George Will one reason why we are in Afghanistan and Iraq? As I have noted since 9/11, George Will is a reporter that always misses the important half of any news event. I wonder how he reports that Mexican mafia is spreading illegal drugs in the US. Or, Why Mexicans citizens can not own firearms?

So George Will,one of the original neoconservatves has broken with that evil cabal of arm chair chicken hawks!In 1988,Mr.Will accused his friend Ronald Reagan of ‘loosing the Cold War!’Mr.Reagan certainly did not.He negoitated.But thats what Will at the time,and neoconservatives are against,They believe,like there hero,Winston Churchill,one of the history’s greatest war criminals,and the incompetant destroyer of the Britsh Empire in total crushing costly,bankrupting war.Mr.Wills about face is refreshing,and important.But the neoconservative/fundementilist alliance is to strong.The Buchanan/Goldwater/Taft and the Nixon pragmatic wing, a mere feather.Ron Paul,an aged confused gadfly.(From Freedom To Fascism-What a stupid pander to the ignorant)It will take the Democrats to stop the war madness:The GOP in it’s presant form is incapable of such an appropriate manuever.

If Japan is listening to George Will, they may consider attacking Pearl Harbor again.