Obama's Last Shot in Afghanistan

Now that Hamid Karzai's rival has pulled out from the Afghan presidential race and the runoff cancelled, the stage is set for a last-ditch effort to reverse the declining fortunes of the international mission in that country.

Barack Obama has apparently been waiting for a resolution of the Afghan election fiasco before announcing the result of his review of U.S. policy toward Afghanistan. In the next few days or weeks, he is likely to endorse the recommendations of his hand-picked Afghan commander, General Stanley McChrystal, who has called for a shift in NATO's strategy toward the kind of counterinsurgency approach that worked in Iraq – one that prioritizes the protection of the Afghan population over the killing of insurgents.