Eugene Robinson: Without a clear goal, we'll never win in Afghanistan [View All]

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8/5/2010

In Afghanistan, momentum has become a substitute for logic. We're not fighting because we have a clear set of achievable goals. We're at war, apparently, because we're at war.

No other conclusion can be drawn from the circular, contradictory, confusing statements that the war's commanders and supporters keep making. President Obama, in an interview with CBS taped last Friday, said it is "important for our national security to finish the job in Afghanistan." But as the war's deadliest month for U.S. troops came to an end, Obama was far from definitive about just what this job might be.

"Nobody thinks that Afghanistan is going to be a model Jeffersonian democracy," Obama said. "What we're looking to do is difficult — very difficult — but it's a fairly modest goal, which is: Don't allow terrorists to operate from this region. Don't allow them to create big training camps and to plan attacks against the U.S. homeland with impunity."

But if the war's aim is to eliminate the al-Qaeda base in Afghanistan from which the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were launched, that goal was accomplished long ago. There is no substantial al-Qaeda presence in the country anymore; the terrorist network's affiliates in places such as Yemen and Somalia are much more robust, and the leadership is believed to be hiding in Pakistan. What sense does it make to fight al-Qaeda where it used to be, rather than where it is now . . . ?


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