As I try to wrap things up before departing on my holiday weekend I wanted to note one of the more interesting things that caught my eye in a week dominated by news of California wildfires and celebrity burials. As the U.S. military continues a top-level assessment of the war in Afghanistan the public debate has taken a surprising turn. I’m referring to George Will’s op-ed in The Washington Post in which he sounds a retreat from Afghanistan. As you know, Will is a noted conservative columnist and one could reasonably assume that he would be in favor of continuing the war in Afghanistan and for increasing U.S. troop levels there. Surprisingly, he is calling for withdrawing troops and using drones and other stand-off weapons to accomplish U.S. military goals. In this report in Time Magazine Mark Thompson examines that idea to see if the U.S. really could do it all from a distance. This policy brief from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace stops short of calling for a troop withdrawal and instead argues for a dramatic redefinition of the mission in Afghanistan, away from defeating the Taliban and toward securing urban centers and key roads so that the Afghan government can survive the eventual U.S. and NATO withdrawal. So, what do you think, send in the drones or keep boots on the ground?
Photo Credit: Danger Room
