Interesting BBC piece below on Obama’s decision to send 17k more troops to Afghanistan. Obama hinted at the Afghanistan “surge” during the campaign, so those hoping for a change from the Bush military diplomacy policy should not be surprised.
However, the bottom line is that this is the first of many tough national security decisions in the Obama administrations future -- decisions that will require a balance of the instruments of national power, which most certainly will include the employment of military force.
For those that stood freezing on the Mall during the inauguration looking for a change in military diplomacy, I suspect you will see an attempt at a little more balance in the use of the other instruments in our national security tool kit. However, right or wrong, the military is still the hammer in that tool kit, and still an enticing, easy solution for the leader of the free world.
“Obama and the limits of liberalism”
After only a month in office, President Barack Obama has bumped up against the realities of war-and-peace decisions that face any American president.
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