Yes We Con!

The slow plod back to sanity

An outbreak of pragmatism under Obama could bring results in Afghanistan but things are set to get worse before they get better

Simon Tisdall
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday November 12 2008

"......Nudging Obama, the Afghan government has its own plans. Kabul is calling urgently for more combat soldiers in the south and east – American or European, it makes no odds. But this time there must be no caveats limiting their activities, said the foreign minister, Rangeen Dadfar Spanta. "These troops have to be fighter troops."

Anticipating similar pressure on Britain from the Obama camp, Gordon Brown and the defence secretary, John Hutton, this week urged European Nato allies to share more Afghan burdens. Obama may end up deploying 15,000 to 20,000 additional US soldiers by next summer, depending on what Petraeus proposes and the speed of Iraq withdrawals. He will want back-up......

The Taliban, too, are awaiting the new act in the White House – though they seem to have misread the script. An internet posting this week claimed Obama's victory demonstrated "the collective willingness of American people not to continue the current despicable and inhuman wars in Afghanistan and Iraq". That may be so. But Obama is committed to escalate the former even as he winds down the latter.

Intensification of the war, and what is being called a "more overt and forceful US military leadership role" in southern provinces where British forces operate, is only part of the president-elect's still evolving strategy......."