Kerry Afghan Plan Lacks Boldness

Lisa Curtis / October 28, 2009

Senator John Kerry in his speech at the Council on Foreign Relations Monday criticized General McChrystal’s Afghanistan assessment for going “too far, too fast,” yet he failed to lay out an alternative strategy for success or to provide a convincing case against implementation of McChrystal’s specific recommendations.

Kerry rightly admitted that a U.S. troop pullout could trigger a civil war in the country and destabilize neighboring Pakistan. He also acknowledged that the costs of failure in Afghanistan are “very real.”

But his plan for moving forward lacks boldness and is unrealistic with regard to the ferocity of the Taliban insurgency. Kerry essentially argued against McChrystal’s recommendation for a significant troop surge on the grounds that the U.S. first needed “critical guarantees of governance and development capacity.” The fact is Afghans need security and protection from the Taliban insurgents before the Afghan authorities are able to deliver governance and development. Such protection will only come if the U.S. and NATO provide sufficient troop levels for the mission. (more…)