Stanley Kurtz is Stupid

Once again, a neocon shows that he either does not use his mind enough, or is dishonestly misinterpreting things.

Essentially, he is arguing that the fact that Britain is planning on moving troops from Iraq to Afghanistan is dangerous, because "it's tough not to think that the open announcement of the withdrawal plan before we knew the Iraqis were ready was driven by British politics."

Although he acknowledges that setting deadlines may have benefits (e.g. it forces the Iraqi security forces to get serious about being ready), and that the deadline is contingent upon the Irraqi secuirty forces being "ready," he seems concerned that the terrorists see it as a sign of weakness.

I don't see how. Britain wants to put more troops in Afghanistan. Moreover, unless there is some deadline for when the Iraqis have to take over, the security forces will never be ready. Although that may be what Mr. Kurtz really wants in Iraq; perpetual occupation. And it is also possible that he doesn't see Afghanistan as that important (I think a lot of neocons thought that pursuing Al Qaeda should be secondary to using 9/11 as a pretext to accomplish their pre-existing agendas). In any case, the real argument here seems to be that if Britain wants to go about fighting a war in the Middle East using a different strategy than we do (e.g. concentrating on Afghanistan rather than Iraq), it's a victory for the terrorists. In other words, we expect Britain to be our poodle and to do whatever we want.

In any case, I suspect that the response of a lot of neocons is that the latest attacks prove that Britain cannot begin withdrawal and should put more troops in. Which is, of course, ridiculous. If a partial withdrawal is the best strategy, it should be pursued; deploying troops in an area you think is unnecessary (or counter-productive) just to spite the terrorists, is ridiculous; moreover, it means that the terrorists can get us to do whatever they want by attacking us and demanding that we do the opposite.

I wish that the neocons would determine their strategy by logic, and not simply by wanting to not appear to be "chicken."

That is all.