Realist scholar Mike Desch at bigthink is highly critical of the Obama Afghanistan policy. Over 100,000 American troops in the country “continually in the face of the Afghan population… generate resentment and a bit of a backlash.” And he says that Obama’s dispute with Stanley McChrystal over this occupation policy mirrors the fights that George W. Bush and his braintrust, Paul Wolfowitz, had with General Shinseki during the Iraq invasion. Because Obama’s “counter-insurgency warfare” is similar to George Bush’s nation-building, in that it imposes on the military a political responsibility that it can’t bring off.
Desch’s answer is “restraint,” withdrawal (and drones– yes I like realists, but my blood chills). And getting to work on the Israel/Palestine conflict, whose resolution will do more to win hearts and minds in the Arab and Muslim world than anything else we can do. Amen. Desch also says that Obama was naive about the lobby. Obama can’t back away from the promises he made in Cairo in ’09, but, Desch says with lovely understatement, “the reality of the politics of the United-States-Israel relationship has become apparent to President Obama.” I’m reminded of why my father-in-law voted for Obama. During the primaries three years ago, I said to him, But the guy has no experience! And he said, wisely, That’s the best thing about him. Well now he has experience; and look how he folds.
