Inarticulate Afghanistan Strategy

Today’s Washington Post headline, “Differing views of new Afghanistan strategy” says much and so does the last line in the story, “We need to be able to articulate winning,” Pentagon spokesperson.

The article illustrates that civilians in charge, the executive branch, have different interpretations of the Obama War Strategy than do military leaders who must carry out the strategy operationally. History proves time and again that a government divided against itself in this manner cannot win at much of anything.

American government has become a government divided intensifying during the Bush administration and continuing today with Obama. The Obama administration shows characteristics eerily common with aspects of Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter. Both place high value on peace and morality on a global scale, though have difficulty managing the federal government institutions to articulate a coherent and consistent winning strategy.

The ghostly quiet State Department in all of this is symptomatic of a failure to align institutions to achieve winning synergy. If the aim in the Middle East where Afghanistan is an instance is to produce a stable government that is responsive to democratic ideals and influence among Western-aligned nations, then the full force of the NATO alliance must be highly visible with dramatically increased presence, economically and militarily to succeed, I think.

Mobilizing the global alliance is the job of the President and head of the State Department with enablement from the Department of Defense. Global participation cannot continue to be a USA lopsided initiative or success is impossible from the outset.

Successful strategy is not evident when the Obama administration apparently cannot achieve continuity and consistency in understanding within its own ranks. Indications of failure: 1) differing views and 2) failure to articulate.

YJ

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