Newsweek's latest issue has a story by Bailey and Thomas that quotes Joe Biden in a September 13th national security meeting at the White House, arguing against Gen. McChrystal's request for an additional 40,ooo troops in Afghanistan:
Biden: Can I just clarify a factual point? How much will we spend this year on Afghanistan?" Someone provided the figure: $65 billion. "And how much will we spend on Pakistan?" Another figure was supplied: $2.25 billion. "Well, by my calculations that's a 30-to-1 ratio in favor of Afghanistan. So I have a question. Al Qaeda is almost all in Pakistan, and Pakistan has nuclear weapons. And yet for every dollar we're spending in Pakistan, we're spending $30 in Afghanistan. Does that make strategic sense?" The White House Situation Room fell silent.
Now, I don't know their source for such a specific quote, but it makes sense; and it fits with Biden's thinking that we do know about.
What a dilemma. We are so wedded to the war in Afghanistan that george bush essentially abandoned to go after Iraq; and now it is a mess on the verge of becoming the dreaded quagmire of "can't win/can't leave."
I'm glad Obama is now The Decider; and I hope he listens very carefully to Joe Biden.
Ralph
Isn't it interesting that not many months ago, we were still hearing about the "surge working" in Iraq. Now, both wars are off the public's front burner. Gallup says people evenly split on sending more troops, but I think that the general populace really doesn't care.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Biden's point, Pakistan is what matters to us right now. Whatever we do has to place Pakistan's fate as our number one priority..