Hope and change haven’t taken root in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Since Barack Obama took charge of the war, he has done nothing more
than time-limit President Bush’s nation-building strategy.
Republicans have, in misplaced loyalty to Bush, failed to
analyze and criticize Obama’s Nation-Building 2.0. They have gone
along with Obama’s strategy despite the increasingly obvious
problems with it. But come January, two men who may be elected this
year are uniquely suited to lead a Republican reassessment of the
war and how Obama is handling it.
In Iraq, as the New York Times
reported yesterday, the “Anbar Awakening” fighters who were the
foundation stones of the temporary success of the counterinsurgency
in the Sunni Triangle, are now reverting to the insurgency. The
report quotes Awakening commander Bakr Karkhi saying that two dozen
of his men have rejoined the insurgency in the last few weeks. It
also quotes the Iraqi security forces commander in Diyala,
Lt. Gen. Tariq al-Assawi saying, “The Awakening is not
helping the police. They are not telling us if Al Qaeda is in the
area. They are not warning us about car bombs that go off in places
they are responsible for securing. A lot of them are definitely
helping the insurgents.”
Iraq, predictably, is disassembling itself in direct
proportion to the reduction in American involvement.
And the nation-building effort in Afghanistan is not doing
even that well. Iranian and Pakistani support for Taliban and
al-Qaeda forces, and the deep-seated corruption of the Karzai
government have — despite American attacks that have killed many
of the terrorist leaders — prevented the strategy from working
there. Reported peace talks between the Karzai government and the
Taliban are, as they had to do, foundering.
After Obama’s December 2009 announcement of his “surge” of
troops into Afghanistan, he ordered a review of the Afghanistan
strategy to be completed this December. That review would have
enabled General Petraeus and the other military leaders to
recommend, and get the president’s approval, for changes to the
strategy to ensure its success. But in a September 30 letter to
congressional leaders, Obama wrote, “We are continuing to implement
the policy as described in December and do not believe further
adjustments are required at this time.” By so doing, he has mooted
the December review. There will be no change in strategy and no
change in Obama’s plan to begin withdrawing American forces from
Afghanistan in July 2011.
Whatever the results of the December review — and
regardless of Obama’s steadfast refusal to change the schedule for
beginning the withdrawal — Republicans must find their voice on
the war. Whether or not they gain control of either house of
Congress, they are duty-bound to publicly dissect Obama’s strategy
and recommend how it can be repaired. Two Republican candidates who
may be elected in two weeks — Army Lt. Col. Allen West and Marine
Lt. Ilario Pantano — by their experiences in the war should lead
that public reexamination of the war.
Allen West — running in Florida’s 22nd district — is a
20-year Army veteran who saw the counterinsurgency first-hand in
Iraq. West, a civil-military affairs officer at the time, was
accused of abusing a prisoner. The incident occurred when an Iraqi
policeman, arrested for conspiring with the terrorists, refused to
give information on a planned attack on West. Intervening in the
interrogation, West held the man down and discharged his pistol
into a sand-filled barrel next to where the man stood. As a result,
the man divulged information that saved American lives. West
immediately went to his commander’s tent, woke him up, and told him
what he had done. The political correctness police went after him,
and he retired from the Army.
After retiring, West signed on as a civilian advisor and
served there for nearly two years. He’s running against doctrinaire
liberal Ron Klein (ACLU rating 90%, ACU rating 4%).
West is an intellectual who understands the war as few
others do. (Full disclosure: Allen is a friend whom I admire
comprehensively. He’s presidential material.)
Ilario Pantano is a warrior. He served in the Gulf War in
1991 and — after 9/11 — returned to active duty. He was leading
his platoon against insurgents in the Sunni Triangle when they came
under fire and he shot two men. Pantano — accused by a disgruntled
sergeant who he had demoted — faced charges of killing the two
Iraqis without justification and was exonerated. He later wrote the
book Warlord about his experiences. He is tough,
well-spoken, and has the intensity of intelligence we so often see
in Marines.
Pantano is running in North Carolina’s 7th district (which
hasn’t had a Republican congressman in more than a century) against
incumbent Mike McIntyre (ADA 85%, ACU 32%).
There are two factors that make West and Pantano ideal to
lead Republicans in a public examination of the war in January.
First, they have seen the enemy first-hand and understand him as no
one who lacks that experience can. Second, they both have had to
fight both within and against the culture of counterinsurgency that
places pressures on our troops that they, as warriors, should not
have to bear.
The latter is what makes these men rise above the rest.
There are other military veterans, some with service in Iraq and
Afghanistan, who are in Congress or running for the first time this
year. But none of them have faced the grim truths that West and
Pantano have had to overcome.
President Obama has worked hard to take the war off the
national agenda. And he has succeeded. A New York
Times/CBS News poll released last month said that only 3% of
Americans thought that the war was among the top issues facing
government. Another poll released just a few days ago, this one by
CNN, said that support for the war is down to an all-time low of
37%.
The December review of Afghanistan strategy will come and
go, and the Obama-friendly media won’t notice its passing. America
deserves more, and better. If Allen West and Ilario Pantano are
elected, the House Republican leaders should appoint them to lead
an independent review of the strategy Obama is pursuing. It is, the
president say, supposed to destroy the Taliban’s momentum and
ensure that they and al-Qaeda cannot again turn Afghanistan into a
terrorist haven after we leave. It will not do that. America needs
to understand how the Bush-cum-Obama nation-building strategy has
failed and how we need to reorient ourselves to defeat a threat
that has already inflicted on us the 9/11 attacks and the more than
1,200 soldiers’ deaths in Afghanistan. Allen West and Ilario
Pantano can deliver that understanding like no one else can. Here’s
hoping they get the chance.
