An American Lion

Oh, you knew someone had to go out and equivocate:

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen told CBS Newson Thursday that, while President Obama’s plan to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2011 is clear, there has been no indication of how long that pullout may take after it’s begun.

“It’s very clear that the president has given us guidance that in July of 2011, we’ll start to transition security responsibility to the Afghan national security forces,” Mullen told “Early Show” co-anchor Harry Smith. “There’s no determination of how long that will take… There’s no specific guidance with respect to how many. It could be very few, it could be a large number.”

Mullen also stressed that Mr. Obama has vowed to conduct the withdrawal “responsibly and it will be based on conditions on the ground.”

The Chairman acknowledged the huge challenge facing U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan as they race to train and equip the Afghan national forces to take over security duties.

He told Smith that, at present, the Afghan National Army boasts about 96,000 troops, as many as 60,000 of whom are currently fighting alongside their Western allies. But he admits “very few” of them are ready to take the lead on combat operations.

When he says “very few” he means none that are worth their salt, in other words, and all we are seeing is an echo of the mismanagement of the Iraq war. If you’ll recall, General Petraeus was one of the generals in charge of training the Iraqi military and security forces, and despite his admirable efforts at shining turds, the number of Iraqi battalions that could fight on their own was stuck at “one to three” for the better part of three years.

The President lied to the American people about what we’re doing in Afghanistan, and now comes the ‘walking back’ that will give him cover in a year or so when things haven’t improved much. Mullen is out there, equivocating and reminding people that we may not, in fact, be able to withdraw troops in 2011. Why, in order to distract people, I’m sure they’re thinking of a nice place to put the memorial for the dead so everyone can “feel” better about all of this. A handful of speeches will solve everything. 

I’m ambivalent at the chances here. I think they are now going to begin paying warlords more money to convince nascent Taliban or insurgent forces to stay home for the next cycle of campaigning when spring comes to Afghanistan next year. I think there will be a full court press to put money in the pockets of everyone who has any influence in order to give us a quiet 2010. A quiet 2010 in Afghanistan would then lessen the political impact of what the President has done, and it would get people focused on other things. They have no intention of actually doing “COIN” or winning. They’re playing not to lose before the 2010 mid-terms and to give them time to maneuver before the New Hampshire primary in 2012. This President knows his history, and the one thing he knows most of all is, he doesn’t want to have to deal with another Eugene McCarthy.