Trump's New Afghanistan Strategy Isn't Really a Strategy
Principles guiding a strategy are no substitute for an actual strategy whether developed by Washington or by field commanders.
Congress should instead push now for much more comprehensive responses and much more elaborate detail to the Trump omissions—even if in executive sessions. Almost certainly, it will find the new strategy is woefully deficient, no more satisfactory certainly than the “plans” of Presidents Bush and Obama, which aroused such bitter, sweeping and sarcastic criticism by candidate Donald J. Trump. Congress should insist on a real strategy, author one itself, or else consider getting out of Afghanistan.
Gerald F. (“Jerry”) Hyman is a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars.
Image: An Afghan policeman stands guard in front of a burning pile of seized narcotics and alcoholic drinks, in the outskirts of Jalalabad, Afghanistan September 26, 2017. REUTERS/Parwiz
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