In the first few months of his administration, President Obama expanded the U.S. presence in Afghanistan by sending in approximately 20,000 more troops and advisors to the region. Whatever the merits of such a strategy, or the foreign-policy principles underlying it, Obama had at least committed himself to a strategy. Since then, he has taken barely any action at all, while soldiers deploy overseas without a clear understanding of their mission and caskets return home in record numbers. General Stanley McChrystal has made recommendations calling for a fairly dramatic escalation in order to address the counter-insurgency and ideally cut back on the number of American casualties. The Spectator takes no stand regarding the merits of the General’s strategy, but we must applaud him on one count: he has forced the conversation. Taking that conversation to new heights, recently he engaged in a type of useful near-insubordination when telling a London audience that he emphatically rejects any proposal to drawdown troops and focus on a drone strategy. Obama may have been displeased, although that is precisely what needs to happen so that our boys don’t fall in vain.
