Unplugged: Is George Will Giving Up on Afghanistan Too Soon?

By: Michelle Levi
Topics: Washington Unplugged

In response to conservative columnist George Will's call to remove all US troops from Afghanistan, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution Michael O'Hanlon said he thinks Will "is giving up on the strategy far too soon," on Washington Unplugged Tuesday.

"I would argue that if you were going to give up on this war that you should have done so a year ago before we tried this strategy because once you suppoered this initial strategy," he said noting that it will take several years to secure America's position in Afghanistan. "We need another year to fifteen months to know if the strategy is working."

Jon Powers from the Truman National Security Project said President Obama is taking the right steps in Afghanistan and he is not sure "he could get out [of Afghanistan] even if he wanted to."

CBS News' Nancy Cordes pointed out that in a new CBS News poll four out of ten Americans think troop numers should be decreased in Afghanistan. Isn't that a PR problem for the president, she asked?

"We are going to have to hear a clearer explanation" of what our goals are in the region, O'Hanlon said. "Ambassador Holbrooke and General McChrystal need to come back to the United States and spend two or three days in congressional hearings and other sorts of public events.

Watch the full interview above as well as an update on CBS News' Cami McCormick who was seriously injured in Afghanistan and a montage of troops stationed there. "Washington Unplugged" appears live on CBSNews.com each weekday at 12:30 p.m. ET. Click here to check out previous episodes.

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by parisdakar September 2, 2009 9:15 AM EDT: Who's George Will?; Reply to this comment


by Jazzhorn September 2, 2009 8:23 AM EDT: George Is such a right winger, that he makes Rush look like a "lefty" for him to have done his homework (unlike most neo-cons who want the war machine to go on forever because they are all investors in that sector) is pretty telling. As Afganistan will not be taken by "Marquis De Queensbury" rules that the Brits lost this continent to (West Point likes the use of X-Box Games made so fashionable by political suits like Rumsfeld and Cheny-Rice-Pearle et al. Apparently we are going to have a little "war" between the "apparachniks" and what appears to have emerged as a thinking mind of the right wing. O'Hanlon can't even spell properly-The need to maintain a "footing" in Afghanistan? why? to get an edge on the "poppy business? We need to get our military out of all the places in the world we don't belong-Period-The continued efforts of "Obama"
To carry the water bucket for Bush and the war technocrats who produced
"project for the 21st Century" will only solidify the Taliban against us (we should never have made them the enemy-bad move) but who said the West Point had any sense of pragmatic tactical field maneuvers-They haven't won a war in 50 years. I would sack the whole bunch of them including Patreus, who can't function in Afghanistan with "paying the boyz off" because they will not take our "Reichmarks" any longer, "The print is still wet" Wake up Mr President, and members of the cabinet-Imperialism is finished on this planet- Maybe the guys who enjoy killing so much would like to go on a Mars mission and look for some of the "grays' to shoot.Have we not had enough insanity in Iraq? George Wills is absolutely correct, we owe him a vote of thanks, as most of the media is too intimidated to tell truth to power,they have all knuckled under.Thank you George!; Reply to this comment


by bettycarol September 1, 2009 11:27 PM EDT: I usually do not agree with most of Mr. George Wills political stances. However today he wrote an article about looking for an end game in Afghanistan. All of his points were well taken by me.

i can't see losing so much blood and treasure in a country that is so unstable and doesn't seem to want to organize in any way to drive out the Taliban and/or Al Queda. They are too busy counting up poppy seed money.

This is a time when the United States is deeply in debt and, therefore, it makes no sense to wast dollars that could reform our health care system and possibly pay on the deficit.; Reply to this comment


by bradkt1 September 1, 2009 8:52 PM EDT: I agree with George Will. Substantial numbers of U.S. troops in Afghanistan only means a substantial number of targets for the Taliban. The Taliban was created by Pakistan's corrupt intelligence agency...the ISI...and it still has connections with them. The Afghan Government is totally corrupt and a good portion of it also supports the Taliban. It's the old double-dealing game...hedge your bets by pretending that you support the occupier and secretly work with the insurgents. The question needs to be asked if such a corrupt government is worth supporting with U.S. lives and treasure. I say no.

Afghanistan's geography favors the Taliban and they know it like the back of their hands. They strike and then disappear. This is just a war of attrition and the American people are not going to support for long for a war that produces no victory...only casualties.

A bunch of barefoot mountain men in Afghanistan can not do what they are doing to the armed forces of the United States unless they are getting a lot of outside help. As strange as it may sound, I doubt that any substantial help for the Taliban is coming from Iran. That leaves Pakistan as the source of this aid for the Taliban and exposes Pakistan as the real problem...and it always has been from day one. The United States is now finding out the hard way what India has known for a long time. Pakistan is a nation that sponsors terrorism. They accept U.S. financial and military aid to fight terrorism and routinely handicap U.S. efforts to do so at every turn (they only do just enough to keep the money flowing) while many of their own intelligence operatives aid the Taliban with intelligence, funding and weapons.

I wouldn't want to be President Karzai if the Taliban get hold of him. The Taliban slowly and publicly carved up the last "leader" who was installed by a foreign power on a soccer field when they caught him after the Russians left.

We can keep killing people, but there is no victory to be had for the United States in Afghanistan. I say get our people clear, do some covert operations and strike at the enemy from a distance. Sooner of later, the Afghans will get tired of the casualties they are suffering and be more amenable to U.S. concerns and the U.S. won't be in a situation where we get tired of our casualties before they get tired of theirs.; Reply to this comment


by Bigheader September 1, 2009 6:24 PM EDT: The war is over declare victory and come home. We went there to catch Bin Linden not build a nation. The mission has failed. Don't waste any more lives or money. America is bankrupt, why keep spending money over there? We go to war to destroy the institutions of war, factories, armies, governments and various other entities of the war making machines. What is there to destroy in Afghanistan? What does victory look like? Vietnam all over again. Nothing to win only more to lose. George Will has it right, how many times do we have to do this?; Reply to this comment

by Bigheader September 1, 2009 6:23 PM EDT

The war is over declare victory and come home. We went there to catch Bin Linden not build a nation. The mission has failed. Don't waste any more lives or money. America is bankrupt, why keep spending money over there? We go to war to destroy the institutions of war, factories, armies, governments and various other entities of the war making machines. What is there to destroy in Afghanistan? What does victory look like? Vietnam all over again. Nothing to win only more to lose. George Will has it right, how many times do we have to do this?

Reply to this comment


by heavynne September 3, 2009 3:38 PM EDT: The war is not over. We were so busy going after Saddam instead of Bin Laden. All of our sons and daughters died for nothing in Iraq. Our concentration should have been Afghanistan all of these years and maybe we would have gotten Bin Laden by now. To just give up and let the our true enemy live is ludicrous. My son has been to Iraq three times, he's there now. Thank God he has survived thus far, but I pray that our children and parents who have died in Iraq will not be in vain. I think the best tribute to them would be to go after the person we should have gone after in the first place, capturing or killing him. Otherwise our soldiers really have given their lives for nothing.