Kissinger Warns On Afghan Exit Strategy

By Daniel Dombey in Washington

Published: June 28 2010 23:21 | Last updated: June 29 2010 04:15

Henry Kissinger, the former US secretary of state, has warned that Washington’s plan to begin handing over responsibility to national forces in Afghanistan in July next year “provides a mechanism for failure”.

In an interview with the Financial Times after President Barack Obama’s decision to remove General Stanley McChrystal as commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, Mr Kissinger said the public “must be prepared for a long struggle” in what is already the US’s longest war.

Mr Kissinger said Mr Obama needed to rethink the deadline and the way the Afghan strategy had been designed since, in his view, its goals were too ambitious and too focused on a Kabul government with limited influence in the rest of the country.

“ needs adaptation to realities,” he said, suggesting the task of adapting it would best fall to General David Petraeus, Mr Obama’s nominee for Gen McChrystal’s successor.

Mr Kissinger added that fighting the Taliban until it was reduced to impotence “would take more time than the American political system would permit”.

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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6756dea8-82e8-11df-8b15-00144feabdc0.html

Thanks for your concern douche bag war criminal.

When have you ever been right?

He is a hawk.

I share his observations that the Afghan government is weak and that the American people have no patience for a long war aimed at reducing the Taliban to impotence.

Modern theories about counterinsurgency go a long ways in explaining why we lost in Vietnam: the US had no viable alternative to reunification of Vietnam under Communist rule. Just before the US escalated in Vietnam, the CIA overthrew the US puppet regime of President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother, security chief Ngo Dinh Nhu, in Saigon because it lacked popular support and was doing everything it could to lose more. Nevertheless, no successive regime in Saigon was any better than the Ngo brothers. For counterinsurgency to be successful, a viable government is needed to maintain order after US troops depart.

We are faced with the same situation in Afghanistan. The Karzai government, such as it is, is riddled with corruption and controls no territory beyond Kabul. The drug trade is back. This is not a regime that can maintain order after US troops depart. So, what is the alternative? Leave American troops in Afghanistan indefinitely? Dr. Kissinger doesn't see that as a realistic option, either.

Dr. Kissinger seems to assess the situation correctly, but fails to draw the inevitable conclusion from his own premises: this war cannot be won and American troops should withdraw.

Nixon Era War-hawk available...

investment in military weapons? Blackwater/XE?

his stunning success in Viet....... OK well maybe not Vietnam but definitely Cambod...... OK OK Laos now that was fantabulous.