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The narrative of last year's U.S. presidential election focused on two different wars: in Iraq and Afghanistan. Democratic candidates, including President Obama, Vice President Biden, and Secretary of State Clinton, argued that the Iraq war had distracted from the more important fight in Afghanistan. Now in office, President Obama finds
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his administration at the center of a hot debate on the future of the war in Afghanistan, and the United States at a strategic crossroads.
Will the Obama administration support a counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan designed to achieve meaningful long-term stability, or will success be defined in much more limited terms, saving the United States from a difficult reassessment and retooling for which there is little appetite? Most importantly, can the U.S. mission--with or without additional troops--succeed without a new strategy on the ground that confronts the growing Afghan insurgency?
Three and a half years after his seminal AEI address on "Winning the War in Iraq," Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) will deliver a major policy address at AEI on the path to victory in Afghanistan.
- Click here to view Senator McCain's remarks as prepared for delivery.
| 11:45 a.m. | Registration | |
| 12:00 p.m. | Introduction: | Danielle Pletka, AEI |
| 12:10 | Speaker: | Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) |
| 1:15 | Adjournment |
phil.alito@aei.org
WASHINGTON, MARCH 4, 2009--Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) was blunt during his address on
the war in Afghanistan at the American Enterprise Institute on February
25. "Make no mistake," he said. "We will fail in Afghanistan without a
serious change in both strategy and resources." The change we need, McCain said, is a return to the policy that
first brought success to U.S.-led NATO forces between late 2003 and
early 2005. According to McCain, at that time, under Ambassador Zalmay
Khalilzad and Lt. Gen. David Barno, "we increased the number of
American forces in the country, expanded nonmilitary assistance to the
Afghan government and, most importantly, abandoned a
counterterrorism-based strategy that emphasized seeking out and
attacking the enemy, in favor of one that emphasized counterinsurgency
and the protection of the population." Improved security is a precondition for political and economic
progress in Afghanistan, McCain said. Good intelligence, the key to
successful warfare, comes from a secure, supportive civilian
population. Without a coherent strategy that emphasizes such stability,
the civilian population in Afghanistan will have "no incentive to
cooperate in the absence of sustained security or the promise of a
better life." That requisite incentive can be created through what McCain called
his "Plan Afghanistan," a blueprint for "strengthening institutions,
the rule of law, and the economy." Still, many obstacles exist. Opium
poppies are the single largest cash crop in the country and often
provide the only means of subsistence for poor Afghan farmers and their
families. Although military interdiction efforts have enjoyed limited
success, they have destroyed the livelihood of some farmers and further
alienated some segments of the population. It is clear that the United
States must provide a viable market alternative to poppy farming if
there is to be any hope of gaining the full confidence and support of
the Afghan people. Increased security, assistance, and support require a
recentralization of diplomatic and military efforts, which were
"balkanized" in 2005, McCain said. But the central government in Kabul,
which is led by Afghanistan's best-known political figure, President
Hamid Karzai, faces a legitimacy crisis amid swirling accusations of
corruption and reports of disturbingly close ties to Russia. Because
Karzai is the strongest candidate in the upcoming presidential
election, it will be crucial for the United States to establish
realistic expectations about his influence. For any focused centralization efforts to succeed, McCain said, a
comprehensive U.S. strategy must be articulated and implemented by the
Obama administration to buttress American confidence before public
support for the "good war" fades in the face of steadily rising costs
and casualties. --JOSH EBOCH ###
Speaker biographies
Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986 after serving two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and is a member of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources; the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; and the Committee on Indian Affairs. Before entering politics, he was a naval aviator in the U.S. Navy for twenty-two years. During his distinguished career, he received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit, the Purple Heart, and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Danielle Pletka is the vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at AEI. Her research areas include the Middle East, South Asia, terrorism, and weapons proliferation. Before coming to AEI, Ms. Pletka served for ten years as a senior professional staff member for the Near East and South Asia on the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Since joining AEI, Ms. Pletka has developed a conference series on rebuilding post-Saddam Iraq, directed a project on democracy in the Arab world, and designed a project to track global business in Iran. She was a member of the congressionally mandated U.S. Institute of Peace Task Force on the United Nations, which released its final report in 2005. She recently coedited Dissent and Reform in the Arab World: Empowering Democrats (AEI Press, 2008) and coauthored the 2008 AEI report Iranian Influence in the Levant, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
