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The purpose of the paper is generate discussion and analysis on whether we are not only doing things right here in Afghanistan, but indeed whether we are doing the right things.
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I just read Bing West's article in the Nov/Dec 08 issue of
The National Interest. One passage in particular really stuck out: "[W]e expect our military to destroy al-Qaeda by killing its members. The American military mission is not nation building. If poverty and poor government were the causes of insurgencies, most of the countries in the world would be at war. To prevent more recruits for the Islamic extremists, we'd like to have a tolerant democracy and a thriving economy in Pakistan and Afghanistan. But if we make that a precondition for crushing al-Qaeda, we will be in Afghanistan for decades."
So, are we doing the right things? Reading that passage, my impression of West's suggestion is that we should worry less about whether Afghanistan has a functioning government. Just destroy the terrorist networks and be on our way. The lack of government in Afghanistan did not create al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda was simply drawn to the lack of governance.
Should our mission be to stand up a democratic government in Afghanistan? Or should we be focused on purging Pakistan's tribal areas of Taliban? It seems that if we accomplish the latter, then the former will be of much less consequence and, if we choose to pursue it, could be achieved with far less American blood.