Why Has The Left Been Silent on Afghanistan? Posted by Michael Cohen

For a couple of weeks now I've been fulminating about the lack of progressive attention to Afghanistan. Well today I put it down in paper  . . . on the digital pages of the New Republic:

Earlier this month, the Pentagon released a 152-page report outlining the increasingly grim situation in Afghanistan. The paper highlighted the Afghan government (and its security services) lack of capability; the enduring challenge of endemic corruption and poor governance; and the Taliban insurgency’s ability to maintain influence—often via intimidation—across broad swaths of the country. These challenges have already undermined U.S. military operations in Marjah, and could threaten the upcoming summer offensive planned for Kandahar, the heart of the Taliban insurgency.

The entire U.S. mission in Afghanistan, which is predicated on extending the legitimacy of a flawed Afghan government, bringing good governance to the country’s most insecure regions, and degrading the Taliban insurgency militarily to smooth the path for political negotiations is becoming eerily reminiscent of the flawed American strategy in Vietnam four decades ago.

While no one can be sure how escalation in Afghanistan will turn out, the warning signs are blinking red. Yet the reaction from many of the president’s liberal and left-of-center supporters has been acquiescence and even silence. The Pentagon report—like much of the recent bad news out of Afghanistan—caused barely a ripple on the left. It’s a familiar pattern. The American Prospect, along with Salon, has devoted enormous and laudable energy to covering civil liberties issues related to the U.S. war on terror, but has run only one major article on Afghanistan since Obama’s December speech at West Point.

The Center for American Progress’s Wonk Room blog has not run a headlined story about the war since January. At Talking Points Memo, which is perhaps the most prominent liberal blog, Afghanistan rarely rates a mention. Paul Krugman, a frequent critic of the Iraq War (and President Obama), has not written a column on Afghanistan since the president took office. And The New Republic itself has largely avoided critical consideration of the war. (The Nation and Mother Jones have been exceptions to this relative silence.)

So why are so many liberal voices muted? Why after so many liberals aggressively asserted themselves in criticizing the foreign policy conduct of the Bush administration—and in particular the war in Iraq—have they ignored the war in Afghanistan?

Read the whole thing here

Comments

[Dan Kervick]

So why are so many liberal voices muted?

Well, perhaps they are feeling it's all hopeless. The left pummeled Bush and his policies, and helped get his people out of power. But the guy we have in his place is doing Afghanistan. So maybe the lesson is that American militarism and adventuristic lunacy abroad have a momentum that can't be stopped. We have no leverage. There is nothing we can do to get Barack Obama to change direction. What are we going to do, threaten to elect a Republican?

You'll notice that Obama didn't exactly appoint a bunch of left-wing dissidents and critics of US foreign policy to positions in his administration. The interventionist Democrats who were pro-Iraq War and through their lot in with the neoconservatives in the previous administration? You might think that they would have been discredited. But no; they are now in charge of everything and it's their critics who are now out in the cold.

So what's the use?

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Why?
Because 9/11 is the gift to the military-industrial complex that keeps on giving. The NSS: Even as we end one war in Iraq, our military has been called upon to renew our focus on Afghanistan as part of a commitment to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaida and its affiliates."

Anything less is un-American, and almost nobody wants to be that.

And leftys are Americans too.
"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty." --John F. Kennedy

[Jeff M.]

Have read your piece. I must say I find the notion of an 'information gap' as an excuse why there has been little reporting on the subject to be wholly unconvincing, if not an out and out lie. US reporting on Afghanistan is voluminous. Laziness here is not an excuse. Moreover, the idea that liberals also support the mission out of human rights concerns also seems disingenuous for all sorts of obvious reasons such as supporting a government that is hardly known for its stellar human rights record. Oddly enough, it could be argued they believe Obama is being deliberately disingenuous with the American people since the president has justified the war not on moral grounds, but on security grounds. In addition, liberals of all people should be up in arms over the surge narrative given the current chaotic state of Iraq. I suspect their reluctance to think critically about these issues or discuss them publicly has more to do with fear of alienating the administration, or being tarred by the right, than not having competent people who can do so.

[Joshua Cohen]

Michael: I wish you had not simplified your narrative arc by simply leaving out the forum we had in Boston Review this January/February: http://bostonreview.net/BR35.1/rosen.php.

Something From Nothing: U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan
Nir Rosen

With responses by Andrew Bacevich, Helena Cobban, Andrew Exum, Aziz Hakimi, Syed Saleem Shahzad, J. Alexander Thier, Richard W. Miller, Rajan Menon, and a reply from Nir Rosen.

best,

Josh Cohen

[Michael Cohen]

Josh, I wish I hadn't either. There are a lot of folks on the left who have scrutinized the President's Afghan strategy, including the Boston Review. Unfortunately, I can't mention them all and as you can see in the piece I've restricted most of my focus to the DC-centric blogsophere and advocacy community.

Of course that review would have been better if you'd asked me to participate :)

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What's this, family feud?

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I can think about Krugman he will say that the Feds should spend more of our money there.That's his solution to everything.

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Michael: I wish you had not simplified your narrative arc by simply leaving out the forum we had in Boston Review this January/February: http://sestonum.com

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Josh, I wish I hadn't either. There are a lot of folks on the left who have scrutinized the President's Afghan strategy, including the Boston Review. Unfortunately, I can't mention them all and as you can see in the piece I've restricted most of my focus to the DC-centric blogsophere and advocacy community.

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