Is Saving Face the Real Afghanistan Strategy?

Losing George Will on Afghanistan is not quite the same as losing Walter Cronkite on Vietnam. For one thing, Will’s column today, calling for the United States to withdraw most of its troops from Afghanistan, can hardly be considered a surprise. Will, less fashionable in recent years than in the past, has long been suspicious of, even hostile to, anything that could be considered “nation-building”.

Nonetheless, it is a moment. A minor one, but a moment nevertheless. Obama – and General Stanley McChrystal – can count on support from the neoconservative wing of the Republican party, but conservative support for the Afghan campaign can be expected to slowly ebb away. 

The problem is that Obama might need support from conservatives. As Mike Allen reports today, it’s liberals the White House worries about. Russ Feingold – as always a reliable bellwether on these matters – has already called for a clear timetable upon to which to base a US pull-out from Afghanistan.