President Obama's new Afghan policy that he delivered Tuesday night to the nation is an extremely ambitious one, and given how every foreign military intervention in Afghanistan has never quite succeeded, Mr. Obama's latest plan may yet come back to haunt his presidency - and could affect his hopes for re-election.
In the 35-minute televised address Mr. Obama called for the deployment of 30,000 additional U.S. troops in Afghanistan in an effort to turn the tide of the war; a war, one may add, that is not going well for the United States and its allies, as the Taliban is making a comeback in a major way.
But the plan to deploy additional forces throughout the country (Britain also agreed to increase its contingent by 500 men) - call it a surge if you like - is not a bad idea. The more forces that are in Afghanistan, the better they can contain the situation, or so the logic goes. However, additional troops alone are far from enough to fight - and win - an asymmetrical war such as the one being fought in Afghanistan today.
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