Lieberman: 5 Surges for Afghanistan

It’s going to be a difficult slog, bound to get worse before it gets better, but we must win the war in Afghanistan, writes Joe Lieberman in the Wall Street Journal. If we follow his prescriptions, he writes, we can empower moderates and make Afghanistan an al-Qaeda “graveyard” where “dreams of an Islamic empire are finally buried.” Lieberman recommends five “surges” in addition to the coming troop increase.

1. “Strategic coherence” surge: We've done a lousy job so far in integrating civilian and military strategy. Time to fix that.
2. “Civilian capacity” surge: Our embassy needs to be bigger and better.
3. “Afghan military” surge: Let’s help get the Afghan army up to 200,000 or more.
4. “Regional strategy” surge: Afghanistan’s neighbors are tampering; let’s empower Kabul to toss them out.
5. “Political commitment” surge: People will whisper that the war is unwinnable. We have to ignore them.

(More Afghanistan stories.)