Big Fat Story
Afghanistan is not becoming another Vietnam—it already is, says Ted Sorensen, John F. Kennedy’s closest adviser. Sorensen writes in The Daily Beast, “Too many of Obama’s advisers, ignoring Kennedy’s lesson, apparently think the answer in Afghanistan is sending more U.S. combat troops. The real question is not the number of American troops in Afghanistan but their mission—to win more deadly battles with the Afghan people, or to win their goodwill?” As a senator, Kennedy warned against the dangers of an American military quagmire. So, too, did Sen. Obama. Now, the president needs to heed his own advice.
Photo: AP Photo
Saad Mohseni insists that his country must remain front and center in the media and among political decision-makers. Now, he’s worried. “We felt Obama would do the right thing by Afghanistan, and we’re very disappointed by his hesitancy,” Mohseni told The Daily Beast’s Lloyd Grove. Along with his siblings, Mohseni runs Moby Group, a family-owned media company that spans television, radio, magazines, movies and the Internet. Today, the Moby Group reaches an estimated 11 million Afghans daily—70 percent of the available audience. He’s a wit, a progressive, and the face of the country’s user-friendly enlightenment.
Photo: Newscom
What isn’t talked about by the diplomatic big boys.
Afghanistan is too often framed in geopolitical terms—a discussion for national security and little more—by the big boys who run the policy game. But amid that debate, we forget another reason U.S. troops should be there: helping Afghan women, who for generations were left to fend for themselves. There’s a moral obligation as well as a military one at play, Tina Brown says. One Afghan expert told Brown, “Afghan women are very strong and realistic. They all say that if the U.S. thinks they can withdraw, history will repeat itself: ‘You ignore our country and I promise you that you will be back.’”
Photo: AP Photo
Decision Time
JFK’s closest adviser, a McChrystal aide, Tina Brown, and Leslie H. Gelb weigh in what Obama should do next, as the pressure to act builds. Plus, The Daily Beast catches up with the Brothers Karzai and the Rupert Murdoch of Kabul.
First President Obama should turn over the Afghan war to Afghans themselves and then back them up with a surge of 15,000 troops, The Daily Beast’s Leslie H. Gelb says, having read the tea leaves provided by the administration. Then, Obama will make more U.S. aid available to the government and army of Pakistan, helping them clean of their frontier and improve the lives of people at home. It’s a more modest plan than that hinted by Obama’s earlier proclamations of a “fully resourced” “war necessity,” but according to Gelb, it may just do the trick. “If President Obama’s past decisions are prologue,” Gelb writes, “he'll seek a middle ground,” splitting the difference between McChrystal’s plan and Biden’s and potentially pointing the way to an American success.
Photo: Chris Hondros / Getty Images
The Daily Beast’s Gerald Posner brought the news to Ahmed Wali Karzai, the Afghan president’s brother, that The New York Times was reporting on the CIA payroll. “Everything is false,” Ahmed Karzai told Posner. “I explained everything to The Times reporter. Ask yourself, why is this coming up right before the election for my brother? It is clearly serving someone’s personal agenda.” Mahmoud Karzai said he worried that the charge might affect President Obama’s commitment to Afghanistan, but the pair promised not to go down without a fight.
Photo: Banaras Khan, AFP / Getty Images
Why should Obama take his time on deciding whether to increase troop numbers in Afghanistan when the country seems to be going to hell in a hand basket? The recommendation for a surge came from a report authored by Gen. McChrystal in March. The situation on the ground is different now than it was then, and the president needs to reassess the assumptions that were behind that report, Andrew Exum, who helped draft the McChrystal Report writes in The Daily Beast. Additionally, more time may give the U.S. greater leverage with Afghanistan’s elders. “The Obama administration, if it's clever, will try to figure out the best way to use its leverage over Karzai and other Afghan politicians. And in that effort, they deserve time to succeed,” Exum writes.
Photo: Paula Bronstein / Getty Images
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