Huh:
Afghanistan is suffering a crisis of confidence – and given what’s on the horizon, it's not so difficult to see why.
Next year is shaping up to be a perfect storm of security, political, and economic transition. And many Afghans, from shopkeepers to members of Parliament, are uncertain that their fragile ship can withstand the tossing waves.
After more than a decade of a massive foreign military presence and an associated aid effort that have showered tens of billions of dollars on one of the world’s poorest countries, the US and other Western powers are preparing, if not to say goodbye, then to substantially scale back.
Let me repeat myself. Huh.
As with so many things in this long war, we're damned if we do and we're damned if we don't.
And recall that I foresaw the crisis of confidence.
And recall that we need to defend the gains of our wars lest things go horribly wrong when we are completely gone too soon:
Suspected Sunni Muslim militants killed four state-backed Sunni fighters in Iraq on Saturday, security sources said, apparently viewing them as collaborators with the Shi'ite-led government of a nation plagued by sectarian hatred.
Sunni-Shi'ite tensions in Iraq have been amplified by the conflict between mostly Sunni rebels and President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite-dominated forces in neighboring Syria.
Just where is the State Department army that was supposed to defend our gains in Iraq?
Keep that in mind as we plan a post-2014 presence in Afghanistan.
I know, I know. Iraq was the "bad" war of "choice." But the impulse to walk away seems to be as strong for the "good" war of "necessity" in Afghanistan.
