During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, thousands of brave citizens of both countries assisted our efforts, at great risk to themselves and their families. Many were killed because they stood with us. Many more faced serious threats. Now we have a moral obligation to stand with them by ensuring that those who need it have the opportunity to live safely and securely in the United States, a country they served at considerable risk even though it was not their own.
This is a matter of deep personal concern to me. When I became ambassador to Iraq in 2007, we had no special immigrant visa (SIV) program for our employees, and only a tiny number of those who served with us were being admitted into the United States as refugees.… Seguir leyendo »
Barack Obama recibió de su predecesor, George W. Bush, una herencia bélica envenenada. Aunque distinguiera entre Irak como una guerra "elegida" y Afganistán como una guerra "necesaria", en ambos casos prometió la retirada.
La primera retirada ya ha tenido lugar, y seguramente ha sido mucho más honrosa de lo que Obama jamás pudo imaginar. La retirada de Irak no salva el desastre que fue la invasión ni convalida la pérdida consiguiente de vidas, como tampoco deja detrás una democracia estable, pero permite pasar una difícil página, reducir costes presupuestarios en época de crisis y, sobre todo, permitir a la Administración de Obama centrarse en su verdadero objetivo estratégico: Asia-Pacífico.… Seguir leyendo »
Cuando no se habían apagado aún los ecos de las convenciones de los dos grandes partidos, George Bush irrumpió en la campaña electoral con la primicia de una modesta retirada de tropas de Irak (unos 8.000 hombres) que concluirá en febrero, con un nuevo presidente instalado en la Casa Blanca. También anunció el envío de refuerzos a Afganistán, donde los 50.000 soldados de la OTAN (33.000 norteamericanos) se muestran incapaces de derrotar a la insurgencia de los talibanes y sus aliados de Pakistán. ¿Primer paso para un cambio de escenario bélico?, se pregunta la prensa de EEUU. Aunque el gran público no desea oír hablar de Irak, como admiten los demócratas, el maquillaje electoral y la percepción popular de que aquel país se estabiliza favorecen al senador John McCain, conspicuo abogado de la guerra y del aumento de tropas hasta su nivel actual (146.000 hombres).… Seguir leyendo »
The Bush Administration was wrong about the benefits of the war and it was wrong about the costs of the war. The president and his advisers expected a quick, inexpensive conflict. Instead, we have a war that is costing more than anyone could have imagined.
The cost of direct US military operations - not even including long-term costs such as taking care of wounded veterans - already exceeds the cost of the 12-year war in Vietnam and is more than double the cost of the Korean War.
And, even in the best case scenario, these costs are projected to be almost ten times the cost of the first Gulf War, almost a third more than the cost of the Vietnam War, and twice that of the First World War.… Seguir leyendo »
Traveling in Iraq and Afghanistan in late January, I kept encountering two themes that cut across the usual U.S. political debate about these conflicts: The hard-nosed operations of U.S. Special Forces are increasingly effective, and so are the soft-power tactics of provincial reconstruction teams.
The debate over troop numbers may be missing the point. What's making the real difference isn't how many Americans are on the ground but how they are being used. That's true at both ends of the spectrum -- hard power and soft. And, as commanders learn to use these tools of counterinsurgency effectively, they may also be able to operate with fewer people and a lighter footprint.… Seguir leyendo »
The photographs gathered by The Post each month in a gallery called Faces of the Fallen are haunting. The soldiers are so young, enlisted men and women mostly, usually dressed in the uniforms they wore in Iraq and Afghanistan. What's striking is that most of them were killed by roadside bombs known as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.
The United States is losing the war in Iraq because it cannot combat these makeshift weapons. An army with unimaginable firepower is being driven out by guerrillas armed with a crude arsenal of explosives and blasting caps, triggered by cellphones and garage-door openers.… Seguir leyendo »
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