Dial Back Afghanistan, Please

Joe Klein is still on the road. His advice to the President on the Afghanistan War:

Less knowledgeable civilians are completely perplexed by the war--and wondering why we're spending so much money over there at a moment when we're struggling back here. When I try to explain that it has to do with stabilizing the region, that it's mostly about our need to make Pakistan–with its 80 nukes and history of Islamist army coups–feel more secure, eyes quickly glaze over.

This is a factor that should guide the President in the December policy review: if he decides to dial back in Afghanistan--to Joe Biden's less ambitious model, perhaps--he will be noisily criticized by the neoconservatives (who seem a far more significant presence in Washington than they do out in the country), but most civilians will either not care or not mind.

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