Web Letters: Obama's War?

Comment

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

This article appeared in the March 9, 2009 edition of The Nation.

February 18, 2009

Write a Web letter about this article.

What's a Web Letter?

Web Letters are continuously published e-mails from real people, signed with their real names. No registration is required. Each article page on The Nation includes a Web Letters link.

Read the best Web Letters on this page.

We're committed to publishing your comments as they are received. We place a red star () on the best submissions and may edit your e-mail for length or content. Your e-mail address will not be published or shared with any third party without your consent.

If you prefer, you may submit a letter to the print edition only.

We look forward to hearing from you.

  • People, this is precisely why Ralph Nader needed to be voted into office. If we have the numbers, I don't know why voters are so readily willing to give up on third parties. The only issue I would disagree in this article, is that sending 17,000 troops is going to bleed us dry. I think the War on Iraq has already accomplished that.

    John Molina

    Chula Vista, CA

    02/20/2009 @ 3:17pm


  • With the "Talibanization" of parts of adjacent northwestern Pakistan, the dangers just squared or cubed. The price of doing nothing or of a premature withdrawal at less than a victory just got very, very expensive.

    John D. Froelich

    Upper Darby , PA

    02/20/2009 @ 01:31am


  • A major reason there is so many air strikes is because there are not enough boots on the ground. The lack of ground forces increase the use of air strikes and heavy weapons as compensation. From a military viewpoint, you have it all backwards. With a volunteer army, we will never have enough troops for a military "victory" in Afghanistan, or be able to provide security for the Afghan people. We will have enough troops to prevent any other force from massing to take over Afghanistan. What they will probably do is to try to work with local people similar to the "Awakening Movement" in Iraq. They also need to work with Iran and all of Afghanistan neighbors to resolve this conflict. Lot of direct aid to the people in order to bypass the corruption in the Afghan government might be a good idea. As in Iraq, we cannot win in Afghanistan. It is the Afghans who have to win in Afghanistan!

    Pervis James Casey

    Riverside, CA

    02/19/2009 @ 4:10pm


Advertisement
Advertisement

Blogs

» The Beat

Obama's "Finish the Job" Talk Sets Stage for Afghan Troop Surge | But Appropriations Committee chair Obey warns the move would "wipe out every initiative we have to rebuild our own economy."
John Nichols
Posted at 10:45 PM ET

» The Notion

Bad Black Mothers | For African American women, reproduction has never been an entirely private matter.
Melissa Harris-Lacewell
11 Comments

» The Dreyfuss Report

A Kingdom of Bicycles No Longer | China's ambassador for climate change speaks on the eve of the Copenhagen summit meeting.
Robert Dreyfuss
40 Comments

» Act Now!

Coal Country | "This is a civil war."
Peter Rothberg
83 Comments

» Editor's Cut

Around the Nation | The week we went Rouge. Plus, Moyers on Afghanistan.
Katrina vanden Heuvel
114 Comments

» Altercation

Slacker Friday | The "Second Amendment" sale; the raving paranoids of the right.
Eric Alterman