A Flawed Strategy and a Failed War in Afghanistan

A Flawed Strategy and a Failed War in Afghanistan

A Flawed Strategy and a Failed War in Afghanistan

Obama’s strategy in Afghanistan lacks a clear, achievable mission, isn’t in our national security interest and costs too much in treasure and lives.

Katrina vanden Heuvel
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Editor’s Note: Each week we cross-post an excerpt of Katrina vanden Heuvel’s column at the WashingtonPost.com.

 

Speaking to graduating cadets at West Point on Saturday, President Obama noted the "ultimate sacrifice" of 78 of their predecessors who gave up their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq. But he did not mention that just days before, five U.S. soldiers were killed in Kabul, bringing the toll of American dead in Afghanistan to over 1,000.

 

As we pass this grim marker, the Obama administration’s strategy in Afghanistan is foundering because it is fundamentally flawed. It lacks a clear, achievable mission, isn’t in our national security interest and costs too much in treasure and lives.

 

The counterinsurgency strategy to win the hearts and minds of Afghans is failing…

 

Read the rest of Katrina’s column at the WashingtonPost.com.

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Katrina vanden Heuvel Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture. An expert on international affairs and US politics, she is an award-winning columnist and frequent contributor to The Guardian. Vanden Heuvel is the author of several books, including The Change I Believe In: Fighting for Progress in The Age of Obama, and co-author (with Stephen F. Cohen) of Voices of Glasnost: Interviews with Gorbachev’s Reformers.


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