For those who have followed the war in Afghanistan, the Central Command’s latest request for additional troops should look familiar. After all, a similar request was made in 2009, when then-president Barack Obama approved the move of an additional 30,000 troops to the war as part of a “surge.” Obama, who had campaigned against war, found the decision difficult to make. Now, seven years and billions of dollars later, we should be thinking even harder about what a surge could accomplish. Now, more than ever, it may be time to consider each Afghanistan strategy an exit strategy and to pay more attention to the kinds of problems that a surge will never solve.
We Should Think Twice About A New Afghanistan Surge
