Press of Atlantic City

More troops, new strategy needed to win in Afghanistan

Published: Nov 21, 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan - American troops in Afghanistan are fighting what will soon become Barack Obama's war - not just because he will inherit it, but also because he has claimed it. This is "the right battlefield," Obama has said. The war in Afghanistan "has to be won."

How can that mission be accomplished? Extensive interviews with American military commanders, European diplomats and Afghan officials lead to this conclusion: Although we are not currently defeating the Taliban and other belligerent groups in Afghanistan, we can prevail if the incoming administration is prepared to fully resource a sophisticated counterinsurgency strategy similar to that implemented by Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq.

A subtle and often misunderstood point: The war in Iraq was not turned around by "surging" more troops into the country. Rather, the key was transitioning to counterinsurgency, a form of warfare that requires many boots on the ground.

Before Petraeus took command in Iraq in early 2007, most American troops there were cooped up in large Forward Operating Bases that had to be supplied, maintained, operated and, of course, guarded. Meanwhile, outside the wire, terrorists were taking over neighborhoods and towns - killing, exploiting, coercing and intimidating the locals. More

Nov 21, 2008

• A great secretary of state is born that way, not made

Having worked for six secretaries of state over 20 years, I have a pretty clear sense of what makes a good one - and with the economic and financial crisis overshadowing foreign policy these days, the selection of an effective secretary of state is now more imperative than ever.

Nov 21, 2008

• U.S. needs Obama to emulate FDR's jaunty optimism

Enough Lincoln. More FDR. This is my shorthand advice to Barack Obama, who in several interviews has talked about how he wants to emulate Abraham Lincoln. He said that along with the Bible, the other book he would take with him to a desert island is Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals." It's a useful book - but not if that desert island has high unemployment, a housing crisis, a frozen financial system and no consumer confidence. In that case, a book about Franklin D. Roosevelt would do better.

Nov 20, 2008

• GOP must provide something to vote for rather than against

They'll be back. Don't think for a minute that they won't.

Nov 20, 2008

• Bailout may protect UAW, but bankruptcy best for U.S.

"Nothing," said a General Motors spokesman last week, "has changed relative to the GM board's support for the GM management team during this historically difficult economic period for the U.S. auto industry." Nothing? Not even the evaporation of almost all shareholder value?

Nov 20, 2008

• Gay marriage needs courts to make a Loving decision

One of my favorite Supreme Court cases is Loving v. Virginia, and not just because it has a name that would delight any novelist. It's because it reminds me, when I'm downhearted, of the truth of the sentiment at the end of "Angels in America," Tony Kushner's brilliant play: "The world only spins forward."

Nov 19, 2008

• Bush-Obama meeting at White House showed the world how democracy works

That scene at the White House last week, with the president and first lady greeting the president-elect and his wife, was one we all should relish.

Nov 19, 2008

• Now, the Internet can transform the presidency

Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first politician to master the use of radio as a way to communicate directly with the nation. Three decades later, John F. Kennedy became the first candidate to exploit the power and reach of television.

Nov 19, 2008

• Jobs have to be Job One for the new administration

Upon graduating from high school, I took a $1.50-an-hour summer job as a low-level grunt for a road construction firm in my hometown in Texas. It was hot, dirty and boring work, with long hours. I hated every minute.

Nov 18, 2008

• Vote shows: 'Social fundamentalists' strangling GOP

Four years ago, in the week after the 2004 presidential election, we were working furiously to put the finishing touches on the book we co-authored, "It's My Party Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America."

Nov 18, 2008

• All of us have a stake in D.C.'s public-school experiment

So it seems there's this new couple coming to town (the husband just got a job with the government). Now they are scouting schools for their children and people are wondering whether they're going to go public or private.

Nov 18, 2008

• Can we please eventually forgive good people who say dumb things?

Fresh ire aimed at former Harvard University President Larry Summers prompts the question: Shouldn't there be a statute of limitations on dumb things expressed in public?

Nov 17, 2008

• Spreading the wealth is what D.C. does

Conservatism's current intellectual chaos reverberated in the Republican ticket's end-of-campaign crescendo of surreal warnings that big government - verily, "socialism" - would impend were Democrats elected. John McCain and Sarah Palin experienced this epiphany when Barack Obama told a Toledo plumber that he would "spread the wealth around."

Nov 17, 2008

• Cheer up: Our enemies are hurting, too

By his own account last week, President-elect Barack Obama's first priority will be to face up to the economic crisis gripping the United States and much of the world. But as he steps under that dark cloud Jan. 20, if he looks up he will see a silver lining. The crisis is hobbling America's adversaries and competitors, too.

Nov 17, 2008

• Guest editorial: The Los Angeles Times on drug safety

If the U.S. Supreme Court were in the business of compensating victims of medical error because of the poignancy of their plight, Diana Levine wouldn't be in suspense about whether the justices would rule in her favor. Levine, a guitarist and pianist from Vermont, developed gangrene after an anti-nausea drug was injected - and hit an artery instead of a vein. Her arm had to be amputated, and Levine wants the court to uphold a verdict ordering the manufacturer of the drug to pay her $6.7 million.

Nov 17, 2008

• Dear Fox News: Thanks for all the help. Yours truly, the Democrats

To: Mr. Roger Ailes

Nov 16, 2008

• Nation will focus on N.J. in 2009

With Barack Obama's historic election victory, the political landscape shifts in 2009 to a couple of key gubernatorial races, and one of them is right here in New Jersey. The stage is set and the odds are that Gov. Jon S. Corzine, who will likely not go to Washington to join the Obama administration, will be running for re-election. Corzine seems committed to finish the job he started. Remember, he left Washington and the U.S. Senate largely because he was bored and found the body of 100 legislators not to be suited for his personality and his leadership style. Corzine sees himself as a chief executive.

Nov 16, 2008

• The demise of Big 3 is unthinkable

It wasn't too long ago that most Americans accepted the adage that what is good for General Motors is good for the nation. That symbolic concept of U.S. industrial might certainly has slipped dramatically over the last four decades, but at this moment it just may be truer than it ever was.

Nov 16, 2008

• Once we bail out auto industry, where will it stop?

Finally, the outlines of a coherent debate on the federal bailout. This comes as welcome relief from a campaign season that gave us the House Republicans' know-nothing rejectionism, John McCain's mindless railing against "greed and corruption" and Barack Obama's detached enunciation of vacuous bailout "principles" that allowed him to be all things to all people.

Nov 14, 2008

• Cold War casualties continue to haunt families of the dead

Merry Lee Croslin doesn't remember her uncle William S. Meyer.

Nov 14, 2008

• Appoint Al Gore secretary of state

If there is a single appointment Barack Obama could make to signal how dramatically things will change in Washington, it would be to name Albert Gore Jr. - former congressman, former senator, former vice president, former presidential candidate and current Custodian of the Planet - as secretary of state. For all the other aspirants to the job, sorry - this is an inconvenient truth.

Nov 14, 2008

• Forget bailouts, let banks die -and capitalism thrive

Everywhere today, politicians are blaring that they must save America's financial institutions, alleging catastrophic risk to the economy were any to fail. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the entire Bush administration, in a discernible panic, are now pouring $700 billion into the big banks, having already bailed out AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Bear Stearns to the tune of $300 billion.

Nov 13, 2008

• Cruel irony of California vote: Blacks support discrimination

Sometimes, progress carries an asterisk.

Nov 13, 2008

• Take Big 3 for a spin before they take taxpayers for a ride

General Motors, Ford and Chrysler met with Nancy Pelosi last week to beg for a second $25-billion loan package from Congress, arguing that they're too big to fail and that Michigan voted for Barack Obama. GM, after getting turned down by the Bush administration, is already planning to ask the next Treasury secretary for $10 billion to buy Chrysler. I'll let other people waste their time examining GM's debt load or Chrysler's union contracts; I decided to figure out whether the government should bail these companies out by testing their products. I'd wanted to run this same experiment on Lehman Bros. and Merrill Lynch but got bogged down when I couldn't figure out what either of them did. I am, however, certain that U.S. taxpayers should not save Bennigan's.

Nov 13, 2008

• GOP should be heartened by re-election of McConnell

"I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky."

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