If you have just tuned back to the FM site after your weekend R&R, you missed these posts about a debate started by Andrew Exum (aka Abu Muqawama). It is, I suspect, an important signal showing how opinion is turning against the Afghanistan War.
A paid propagandist at one of the leading pro-war think-tanks starts a debate about “why we fight”. His pro-war submissions are bizarrely weak. The anti-war submissions and comments (e.g, Bernard Finel, Col. Gian Gentile) are far better reasoned and factually supported. In broader terms, most of the comments are anti-war. Probably not how Exum intended this to run.
(1) Exum: “Introducing the Afghanistan Strategy Dialogue” — This includes my submission.
(2) The first salvo in the Afghanistan Strategy Debate — An extraordinarily weak start for the pro-war side.
(3) Second salvo in the Afghanistan Strategy Debate — Bernard Finel
I’ll update this as Exum posts more salvos in the debate.