AMERICA CANNOT AND WILL NOT SUCCEED IN AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTAN

TUESDAY OCTOBER 6, 2009

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AMERICA CANNOT AND WILL NOT SUCCEED IN AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTAN

FOR THE MOTION

MODERATOR

AGAINST THE MOTION

Steven Clemons

Patrick Lang

Ralph Peters

John Donvan

James Shinn

John Nagl

Steve Coll

PRE-DEBATE VOTE:

FOR: 48% AGAINST: 25% UNDECIDED: 27%

POST-DEBATE VOTE:

FOR: 43% AGAINST: 45% UNDECIDED: 12%

The Obama Administration has implemented a significant change in policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan, which they view as a single challenge, AfPak. More troops and a new commander have been sent to Afghanistan, and the US has increased its level of support and aid to Pakistan. To many, this means we are becoming further entrenched in an open-ended quagmire where any military solution will ultimately fail. Others question whether we should care if Afghanistan has a strong central government or a democratic one. While most agree it should not become a terrorist haven, opinions differ on how this should be accomplished: more troops, covert operations, diplomacy?

And what to make of Pakistan? We cannot allow its nuclear arsenal to fall into the hands of radicals, but President Obama has ruled out putting US troops on the ground. The task of rooting out al Qaeda and Taliban militants falls to Pakistan’s army, which has, until recently, supported these groups as a hedge against future conflict with India. How much tolerance does America have for the long road ahead with AfPak? Can we ever “win,” and how would we even define a win in this region?

MODERATOR

John Donvan is a correspondent for ABC News Nightline. He has served over a career of more than two decades in the following capacities for ABC News: chief White House correspondent, chief Moscow correspondent, Amman bureau chief, Jerusalem correspondent and correspondent for the ABC News magazine Turning Point. Donvan’s most recent major assignment was covering the war in Iraq as a unilateral reporter, for which the Chicago Sun Times named him one of the ten war stars.

FOR THE MOTION*

Steven Clemons directs the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation, which aims to promote a new American internationalism that combines a tough-minded realism about America’s interests in the world with a pragmatic idealism about the kind of world order best suited to America’s democratic way of life. He is also a senior fellow at New America, and previously served as executive vice president. Publisher of the popular political blog The Washington Note, Clemons is a long-term policy practitioner and entrepreneur in Washington, D.C.

Patrick Lang is a retired senior officer of U.S. Military Intelligence and U.S. Army Special Forces (The Green Berets). He served in the Department of Defense both as a serving officer and then as a member of the Defense Senior Executive Service for many years. Colonel Lang is a highly decorated veteran of several of America’s overseas conflicts including the war in Vietnam. He was trained and educated as a specialist in the Middle East by the U.S. Army and served in that region for many years. After retiring a second time from the government he was a business executive for ten years in a large manufacturing company operating in the Middle East and South Asia.

Ralph Peters is a retired Army officer who rose from the enlisted ranks. As a soldier or civilian, he has experience in over 70 countries. He’s the author of 24 books, including works on military and international affairs, bestselling and prize-winning novels, and an adventure-travel memoir. Published widely as a commentator and essayist, Peters has been an opinion columnist for the New York Post since 2002. He has covered conflict zones in Iraq, Israel and Africa, and also has affiliations with USAToday, Armed Forces Journal and Armchair General Magazine. In March, Peters became Fox News’ first “strategic analyst.”

AGAINST THE MOTION*

Steve Coll is president and CEO of New America Foundation, and a staff writer at the New Yorker magazine. Previously he spent 20 years as a foreign correspondent and senior editor at the Washington Post, serving as the paper’s managing editor from 1998 to 2004. He is the author of six books including Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (2004) and The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century (2008).

John Nagl is president of the Center for a New American Security and a visiting professor in the War Studies Department at Kings College of London. Nagl retired from the US Army after 20 years with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He led a tank platoon in Operation Desert Storm and served as the operations officer of a tank battalion task force in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He has taught national security studies at West Point and served as military assistant to the deputy secretary of defense. Nagl is the author of Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam and was on the writing team that produced the U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual.

James Shinn was assistant secretary of defense for Asia in 2007-2008. Before the Pentagon he served as the national intelligence officer for East Asia in 2003-2006, first at the Central Intelligence Agency and then for the director of National Intelligence. After serving in the East Asia Bureau of the U.S. Department of State in the 1970s, he spent 15 years working in high tech firms, first at Advanced Micro Devices, and then at Dialogic, which he co-founded. Shinn was senior fellow for Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations from 1992-1996. He is co-author of Political Power and Corporate Control (2005).

SPRING 2010 MOTIONS UNDER CONSIDERATION:

California is the first failed state · The US should step back from its special relationship with Israel · Blame teachers unions for our failing schools · Organic food is marketing hype · Give every PhD a green card · The government should police the internet · Evangelical Christianity is finished politically · Campus liberals squelch fair and balanced discourse · Bankers deserve their pay · It’s unethical to design our children · Obama’s America can declare victory over racism

*All Panelists are subject to change without notice

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