Iraq vs.Afghanistan

A long thoughtful piece in one of my new favorite foreign policy analysis weblogs, Just World News, contrasts the position of McCain and other Republican ideologues on the simultaneous winnability of the Iraq and Afghani wars with the Democratic candidates’ tradeoff model.

The Myth of the Surge

‘Mission Accomplished’ Dept. (cont’d.): “‘We are essentially supporting a quasi-feudal devolution of authority to armed enclaves, which exist at the expense of central government authority,’ says Chas Freeman, who served as ambassador to Saudi Arabia under the first President Bush. ‘Those we are arming and training are arming and training themselves not to facilitate our objectives but to pursue their own objectives vis-a-vis other Iraqis. It means that the sectarian and ethnic conflicts that are now suppressed are likely to burst out with even greater ferocity in the future.'” (Rolling Stone)