This New Year's Day article just came to my attention, and it contains a couple of very good observations:
Bush Faces a Challenging Year: The Turn from War to Peace Washington Post 01/01/04
"This is the first presidential election perhaps since Vietnam that is going to turn on the way the public views the success or failure of foreign policy. This is going to be the first election that turns on something this administration never wanted to do -- get involved in nation building with more than 100,000 troops engaged in the process," said Mark Snyder, senior vice president of International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based organization that monitors global hot spots.
That isn't the conventional wisdom among reporters and political analysts right now, but I suspect it will prove to be true.
Some foreign policy analysts worry more about U.S. failure in Afghanistan than in Iraq, as former warlords gain more control of the rugged country.
"Iraq gets more attention and resources because of the huge stakes for Bush and the visibility of what is happening in Iraq. Afghanistan is not getting the resources it needs and is now going to hell in a handbasket," warned Brookings Institution President Strobe Talbott, an undersecretary of state in the Clinton administration.
That's also true. Afghanistan was important in the "war against terrorism." Iraq was a sideshow. But far more resources and attention went into the sideshow. And apparently will for a long time.
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