Slate's Fred Kaplan: CT or COIN? Obama must choose this week between two radically different Afghanistan options.

Update: A Washington South Asia hand friend responds to Fred's piece: "The way to look at this is--there are three different wars going on in the region... a counter-insurgency in Afghanistan... a counter-terrorist campaign against al-Qaida in the tribal areas of Pakistan... and another counter-insurgency going on against the likes of Mullah Fazlullah and Baitullah Mahsud, mostly confined to the tribal areas and NWFP but increasingly seeping into the Punjab as well. Kaplan's kind of arguing that you have to pick one--but the real question is how to line up these three wars so that they're all mutually supportive, like lining up tumblers in a lock. This is a problem for both intel and policy, because different architectures have sprung up around each one of these wars and reconciling them is... a chore, to say the least. But that doesn't mean it can't be done!"

Posted by Laura at March 24, 2009 06:42 PM