A worried Biden

Joe Biden has been uneasy about the prospect of a greater commitment in Afghanistan and said so during the meetings which led up to the administration's plans for a refocusing of the American presence there.  According to information leaked to the New York Times, Biden, whose "own experience in Afghanistan indicated that most Afghanis are unclear about the American mission" urged greater clarity.  He "sought to put strict parameters on the size of the additional force deployed to Afghanistan and to ensure there was a specific mission for them. Mr. Biden also cast the debate in terms of what was achievable in Mr. Obama’s first term, administration officials said." 

Revision and refocusing of policy will include:

• 4,ooo  troops (and more if necessary) which "would not carry out combat missions, and would instead be used to train the Afghan Army and the national police."
• increased aid to Pakistan with benchmarks for progress
• removal of Al Qaeda from both Pakistan and Afghanistan -- "a clear and focused goal to disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future."

The Washington Post calls the new plan "conservative as well as bold."

Such initiatives are not the product of starry-eyed idealism or an attempt to convert either country into "the 51st state" but of a realistic appreciation of what has worked -- and failed -- during the past seven years. As Mr. Obama put it, "It's far cheaper to train a policeman to secure his or her own village or to help a farmer seed a crop than it is to send our troops to fight tour after tour of duty with no transition to Afghan responsibility." That effort will be expensive and will require years of steadiness. But it offers the best chance for minimizing the threat of Islamic jihadism -- to this country and to the world.

The lead editorial in the Times points out the difficulty of the mission and is "greatly encouraged" by Obama's plan, but shocked by the latest news from intelligence.

More than seven years into the fight, the leader of the American intelligence community acknowledged that it knows shockingly little about the Taliban command structure.

So much for George W. Bush, "national security", and "mission accomplished."