NEWS

WIRES

OTHER

Conservatives Send Open Letter to President Obama on Afghanistan

By Alan Gray, NewsBlaze  

Last week, the group "Foreign Policy Initiative" sent a letter to President Obama, urging him to allow the military to fight the war, giving them the forces they need, rather than hampering their efforts by limiting resources.

General McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander, advocates sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, but senior Democrats appear to oppose that approach.

FPI, a non-profit, non-partisan organization, conservative in its views, believes the US must not turn its back on international commitments and allies, which it would do if it pulled back on Afghanistan.

FPI says the US has two main groups of allies, long-time allies that defeated fascism and communism in the 20th century, and newer allies, the liberated citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan. They contend the current economic difficulties will not be solved by retreat from the international arena, but will be made worse.

Conservatives Robert Kagan, William Kristol and Dan Senor form the board of directors of the Foreign Policy Initiative. All three contribute articles to the Washington Post, The Weekly Standard and other newspapers.

The letter to President Obama was signed by 48 prominent Republicans, media and national security specialists, including former Bush adviser Karl Rove, Sarah Palin, Gary Bauer and Paul Bremer.

The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States
The White House
Washington, DC

Dear Mr. President:

The situation in Afghanistan is grave and deteriorating. This is in part the legacy of an under resourced war effort that has cost us and the Afghans dearly. The Taliban has retaken important parts of the country, while a flawed U.S. strategy has led American forces into secondary efforts far away from critical areas. However, we remain convinced that the fight against the Taliban is winnable, and it is in the vital national security interest of the United States to win it.

You've called Afghanistan an "international security challenge of the highest order, " and stated that "the safety of people around the world is at stake." Last month you told a convention of veterans, "Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which al Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans. So this is not only a war worth fighting. This is fundamental to the defense of our people."

We fully agree with those sentiments. We congratulate you on the leadership you demonstrated earlier this year when you decided to deploy approximately 21,000 additional troops and several thousand civilian experts as a part of a serious counterinsurgency campaign. Your appointments of General Stanley McChrystal as top commander and David Rodriguez as second in command in Afghanistan exemplified the seriousness of purpose you spoke about during the campaign. We are heartened to see that the much needed overhaul of our military operations has begun.

Since the announcement of your administration's new strategy, we have been troubled by calls for a drawdown of American forces in Afghanistan and a growing sense of defeatism about the war. With General McChrystal expected to request additional troops later this month, we urge you to continue on the path you have taken thus far and give our commanders on the ground the forces they need to implement a successful counterinsurgency strategy. There is no middle course. Incrementally committing fewer troops than required would be a grave mistake and may well lead to American defeat. We will not support half-measures that repeat the errors of the past.

This is, as you have said, a war that we cannot afford to lose. Failure to defeat the Taliban would likely lead to a return of al Qaeda to Afghanistan and could result in terrorist attacks on the United States or our allies. An abandonment of Afghanistan would further destabilize the region, and put neighboring Pakistan and its nuclear arsenal at risk. All our efforts to support Islamabad's fight against the Taliban in Pakistan's tribal regions will founder if we do not match those achievements on the other side of that country's porous northwestern border.

As you observed during the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, "You don't muddle through the central front on terror and you don't muddle through going after bin Laden. You don't muddle through stamping out the Taliban." We completely agree. Having "muddled through" in Afghanistan for years, this is no longer a politically, strategically, or morally sustainable approach.

Mr. President, you have put in place the military leadership and sent the initial resources required to begin bringing this war to a successful conclusion. The military leadership has devised a strategy that will reverse the errors of previous years, free Afghans from the chains of tyranny, and keep America safe. We call on you to fully resource this effort, do everything possible to minimize the risk of failure, and to devote the necessary time to explain, soberly and comprehensively, to the American people the stakes in Afghanistan, the route to success, and the cost of defeat.

With the continued bravery of our troops, and your continued full support for them and their command team, America and our allies can and will prevail in Afghanistan.

Sincerely,

Haley Barbour
Gary Bauer
Steve Biegun
Max Boot
Ellen Bork
Paul Bremer
Christian Brose
Debra Burlingame
Eliot A. Cohen
Ryan C. Crocker
Thomas Donnelly
Eric Edelman
William S. Edgerly
Jamie M. Fly
David Frum
Abe Greenwald
John Hannah
Pete Hegseth
Margaret Hoover
Thomas Joscelyn
Frederick W. Kagan
Robert Kagan
William Kristol
Tod Lindberg
Herbert London
Clifford May
Robert C. McFarlane
Joshua Muravchik
Andrew Natsios
Sarah Palin
Keith Pavlischek
Beverly Perlson
Danielle Pletka
John Podhoretz
Stephen Rademaker
Mitchell B. Reiss
Karl Rove
Jennifer Rubin
Randy Scheunemann
Gary Schmitt
Dan Senor
Ashley Tellis
Marc Thiessen
Daniel Twining
Peter Wehner
Kenneth Weinstein
Christian Whiton
Rich Williamson