Keep Meddling in Afghanistan

(via Ezra) Andrew Sullivan has a good article in the Sunday Times make the point that there's no reason to choose between the McCrystal/Biden poles at a time when the strategic situation in Afghanistan and Iraq and Pakistan is most uncertain. The best route is to continue a middle, meddling, path. He quotes Marc Lynch on this:

“Why choose between escalation or withdrawal at exactly the time when the political picture is at its least clear? Why not maintain a lousy Afghan government which doesn’t quite fall, keep the Taliban on the ropes without defeating it, cut deals where we can and try to figure out a strategy to deal with the Pakistan part, which all the smart set agrees is the real issue these days? Why not focus on applying the improved counterinsurgency tactics with available resources right now instead of focusing on more troops? If the American core objective in Afghanistan is to prevent its re-emergence as an Al-Qaeda safe haven, or to prevent the Taliban from taking Kabul, those seem to be manageable at lower troop levels.”