Hi Andy, This comment obviously doesn’t apply to you or to Will. But it’s going to be funny — in the non-ha-ha sense — to watch some conservatives who supported counter-insurgency warfare in Iraq and hailed General Petraeus as a genius for conceiving and commanding the campaign there suddenly turn around and condemn counter-insurgency as mushy-minded nation-building now that Obama is president. Yes, counter-insurgency involves more than just military might, but for an important reason. Unless you have the trust and cooperation of the population, which can’t be won solely by military means, it’s very difficult to locate the enemy you want to kill or capture. (What you want to avoid is ham-headed attacks from afar that kill lots of the wrong people and only create ill-will and recruitment opportunities for the enemy.) We saw that these counter-insurgency tactics work in Iraq. That doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily work in Afghanistan, but it does mean it’s foolish to reject them out of hand. On the broader strategic point, you raise important issues, but the most compelling reason to stay is not to prevent the brutalization of the Afghan people but to prevent the re-emergence of an al-Qaeda safe haven. Given what we know about the people who run the Quetta shura and run the ISI, there’s every reason to believe al-Qaeda would again thrive in the areas of Afghanistan that they would rule in the wake of a humiliating Western exit. Anyway, here’s my take on Obama and the Afghan war today, and my advice to him: Be like Bush circa 2007.