Monday, November 10, 2008

Michael Yon on Afghanistan

The situation as Obama's going to have to deal with it:

Most of our allies are not very helpful. With the exception of the British, Canadians, Dutch, and a few others such as the Aussies, we are not fighting this with an "A-team" of international allies. With a few exceptions, our allies on the ground are comprised of several dozen countries that mostly refuse to fight. The bulk of NATO amounts to little more than a "Taliban piƱata." The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is proving nearly worthless and provides no credible threat to armed opposition groups (AOGs) in Afghanistan. Most of the NATO member countries seem to break out in a cold sweat at the mere mention of "Taliban." They piled in when the war looked easy and largely humanitarian. But now that it's getting harder and more dangerous, they would like to pile out.

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President-elect Obama says he is serious about Afghanistan. (Just don't fumble Iraq, please.) As he must be learning in intelligence briefings, it's going to be tough stuff. It will be like solving a human Rubik's Cube during a firefight while the media screams every time you make a wrong move — or what is perceived as a wrong move — and there is a clock ticking and at some unknown point the Cube self-destructs.

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