Careful to a Fault

Careful to a Fault on Afghanistan – David Ignatius, Washington Post opinion.

Afghanistan could be the most important decision of Barack Obama’s presidency. Maybe that’s why he is, in effect, making it twice. What’s odd about the administration’s review of Afghanistan policy is that it is revisiting issues that were analyzed in great detail – and seemingly resolved – in the president’s March 27 announcement of a new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. The recent recommendations from Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal were intended to implement that “Af-Pak” strategy – not send the debate back to first principles.

The March document stated that the basic goal was “to prevent Afghanistan from becoming the al-Qaeda safe haven that it was before 9/11.” But to accomplish this limited mission, the president endorsed a much broader effort to “reverse the Taliban’s gains, and promote a more capable and accountable Afghan government.” That gap between end and means has bedeviled the policy ever since. So now the president is doing it again, slowly and carefully – as in last Friday’s three-hour White House meeting, where, I’m told, he went around the table and quizzed his national security aides one by one…

More at The Washington Post.