Afghanistan Escalation or De-escalation?

Click here for a interesting bloggingheads excerpt about the Afghan war.

Why does Anne-Marie Slaughter, a standard bearer for "liberal internationalism," sound like a neocon in her first reply? Calling "handing a victory over to the Taliban" unacceptable is a classic neocon-type fear tactic to justify aggressive behavior. But it's a straw man argument. No one is advocating surrender and total retreat. And her comment about America not being able to talk to the Taliban because of how they treat women, while probably true, reveals a terrible double standard in U.S. foreign policy. How can we refuse to talk to the Taliban on such grounds while the Saudi's, who treat women only marginally better than the Taliban, are our best friends?

I totally agree with Stephen Walt, who in foreign policy parlance is a "realist." Liberals usually hate realists because they automatically think of Kissinger and America's dirty wars in South America. But realists these days, much more than liberals, are the anti-war advocates because they recognize the limits of American power in the world and aren't attracted to the dream of bringing democracy to every un-developed corner of the world at the point of a gun. Liberal foreign policy thinkers, on the other hand, often feels like they have been body snatched by neocon. Liberals need to think more like Walt and less like Slaughter.

Unfortunately, Slaughter is closely associated with Obama and his foreign policy team. As she advocates, it looks like we are headed for another 10 years of counter-insurgency in Afghanistan.