When the chairman of the RNC says, “The war in Afghanistan is a war of Obama’s choosing. This was not something that the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in.”, sane people rightfully ask “What the hell is this guy smoking?” and “Where has he been since 2001?”
It should be painfully clear by now that the RNC is in serious need of a new figurehead, and if he is in fact expendable, he should be expended at once.
I know history is not supposed to change, but the truth is that we never really invaded Afghanistan under Bush. We used special forces, Marines and not that many of them. We made a alliance with the tribes in the North called the Northern Alliance with just a few Americans and we kept a purposely low profile for a very good reason and Obama changed all of that.
The fact is, these people don't want us there and the more we send, the more targets the insurgency which is based in Pakistan, a ally that we can't attack or stop, simply moves back across the border to regroup and rearm then comes at us every spring. They co-opt everything we did and do on the ground and turn the local against us and they melt away in the fall to winter.
The one comparison I can make with this is the Viet Cong and Cambodia. We could not follow them! They did a similar insurgent war plan and they defeated us by killing a few here and few there until our political support broke down. We were pulled out even though we had won every major military battle that we fought. We could not deal with the people who's allegiances switched with the day to shifts of power and fear. We used power and they used fear. Fear won and won handily, just as it did in N. Korea when we crossed the DMZ.
We have the technology to contain. Clinton failed to use it when we had the Intel to act and 9/11 was the result yet we blame Steele for pointing out the futility of this invasion into a territory where history tells us multiple times that we will eventually withdraw after suffering too many casualties for the political support to deal with.
I would support a return to the strategy that Bush employed and beef it up with more UAVs, and gunships. I would put two or three more operating bases at the pass between Pakistan and Afghanistan and I would continue to support Karzi and free elections.
In time, I would go to the UN and begin the process of breaking this mess up when elections and any attempts to form a countrywide governing body failed which they will because it's ungovernable in the same way Pakistan has never been able to govern it's border regions with Afghanistan.
He will be gone shortly after the November elections and not before. It’s not sensible to upset the board at the RNC before and so close to the November battle. As I said, it would do far more harm then good and I doubt you will see much of Steele between then and now. Just written statements.