Joe Biden had a question. During a long Sunday meeting with President Obama and top national-security advisers on Sept. 13, the VP interjected, "Can I just clarify a factual point? How much will we spend this year on Afghanistan?" Someone provided the figure: $65 billion. "And how much will we spend on Pakistan?" Another figure was supplied: $2.25 billion. "Well, by my calculations that's a 30-to-1 ratio in favor of Afghanistan. So I have a question. Al Qaeda is almost all in Pakistan, and Pakistan has nuclear weapons. And yet for every dollar we're spending in Pakistan, we're spending $30 in Afghanistan. Does that make strategic sense?" The White House Situation Room fell silent. But the questions had their desired effect: those gathered began putting more thought into Pakistan as the key theater in the region.
Obama is facing a lot of pressure to find some way to bring the Afghanistan war to a successful conclusion. McCain, the proverbial man with a hammer (every problem is a nail), cannot fathom a situation in which the best course of action is anything less than full throttle military action.
Thank goodness we have Obama and Biden thinking about this, instead of McCain and Palin.
No comments:
Post a Comment