Category: America & Afghanistan

By Dr Sharifullah Dorani* ‘Depending on who you talked to, our mission in Afghanistan was either narrow (wiping out al-Qaeda) or broad (transforming the country into a modern, democratic state that would be aligned with the West)…my first priority was to make sure our agencies…were aligned around a clearly defined mission and a coordinated…

By Dr Sharifullah Dorani* ‘It’s fair to say, then, that by the third or fourth go-around of Power-Points slides, battlefield maps, and balky video feeds, along with the ever-present fluorescent lighting, bad coffee, and stale air, everyone was sick of Afghanistan, sick of meetings, and sick of one another.’[1]  President Obama on the decision-making…

By Dr Sharifullah Dorani* ‘Did I not make myself clear about how I wanted time to evaluate McChrystal’s assessment? Or does your building just have a basic lack of respect for me?… Is it because I’m young and didn’t serve in the military? Is it because they [the military leaders] don’t like my politics…?’[1]…

By Dr Sharifullah Dorani* The role of  the military in foreign policymaking in  the Obama Administration Introduction The decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan under the Obama administration was the result of a highly contentious and intricate policymaking process. Within this process, a clear division emerged between five distinct groups: the Vice-President, the…

By Dr Sharifullah Dorani* ‘Tension between the White House staffers and the Pentagon got worse, with NSC staff feeling stonewalled when it came to getting information in a timely fashion and Gates quietly fuming over what he considered to be the NSC’s constant micromanagement. The bad blood even spilled over into relationships within departments.’…

By Dr Sharifullah Dorani* Introduction  President Barack Obama’s policymaking team for the decision to surge (and, in most cases, for the decision to withdraw) US troops in Afghanistan could be divided into five: the Vice-President, ‘the inner circle’, ‘the outsiders’, the General David Petraeus camp, and the President himself. Each, and its influence on…

By Dr Sharifullah Dorani* The role of the Vice-President Biden in foreign policy in the Obama Administration ‘Listen to me, boss…Maybe I’ve been around this town for too long, but one thing I know when these generals are trying to box in a new president…Don’t let them jam you.’[1] Vice-President Biden to President Obama…

By Dr Sharifullah Dorani* ‘After reading McChrystal’s sixty-six-page assessment, I shared Joe’s skepticism. As far as I could tell, there was no clear exit strategy; under McChrystal’s plan, it would take five to six years just to get U.S. troop numbers back down to what they were now. The costs were staggering, at least…

By Dr Sharifullah Dorani* ‘Mike Mullen, the Joint Chiefs, and David Petraeus all endorsed McChrystal’s COIN strategy in its entirety; anything less, they argued, was likely to fail and would signal a dangerous lack of American resolve to friends and foes alike. Hillary and Panetta quickly followed suit.’[1] President Obama Introduction In the complex…

By Dr Sharifullah Dorani* ‘Joe and a sizable number of NSC staffers viewed McChrystal’s proposal as just the latest attempt by an unrestrained military to drag the country deeper into a futile, widely expensive nation-building exercise, when we could and should be narrowly focused on counterterrorism (CT) efforts against al-Qaeda.’[1] President Obama Introduction  In…