Afghanistan As Red Herring

An argument often advanced against U.S. involvement in Iraq is that Afghanistan remains unfinished business. Some have gone so far as to imply that the U.S. has withdrawn all its forces from Afghanistan and used them instead in Iraq.

Some of these critics are the same ones who say that the U.S. has not put enough troops in Iraq.

But the facts reveal that there remain sizable U.S. and Allied troops in Afghanistan. Further, it is not clear that the kind of troops and equipment deployed in Iraq would have been appropriate in Afghanistan.

In this, the experience of the Soviets is instructive. The Soviets spent many years in Afghanistan, only to become bogged down despite a commitment of thousands of soldiers and their equipment. No matter how many troops there are on the ground, mere numbers are not a guarantee of success.

On the other hand, few could dispute that there is a new government in Afghanistan and that the main goals of U.S. actions there have been substantially advanced. Whatever remains is a hunt for remaining elements of what amounts to an insurgency.

All in all, it remains a factual obligation of those who criticize the military's actions there to show that an alternative approach would have been more effective than what has actually occurred. Nowhere on the left has such a factual argument been advanced.