Is Obama playing the Prince Hamlet of Afghanistan?

Does the administration's strategic indecision on committing larger U.S. troop numbers into Afghanistan evoke the indecisiveness of Shakespeare's Hamlet, while the security situation in this volatile South Asian land lingers in limbo?

Now that the political acrimony has begun to settle over Afghanistan's contentious and fraud-tainted presidential election, now that the dust has settled over the Taliban terrorist bombing of a U.N. complex in Kabul killing many foreign staff, the sand still swirls concerning the long-awaited expanded American security commitment to Afghanistan.

Recommendations by U.S. commander General Stanley McChrystal, hand-selected by President Obama to revitalize counter-insurgency operations in the benighted terror-stricken land, have yet to be acted upon. His recommendation for 44,000 extra U.S. troops (in itself a compromise) has languished for months amid excuses and almost weekly new benchmarks to be achieved before a specific decision is made.

The point is that the current NATO and U.S. operations already exceed 100,000 strong, but predictably have yet to pacify a restive country the size of Texas!

While more American troops to aid particularly embattled British units, and sizable contingents from Germany, Canada, France, Poland and the Netherlands among many others, would certainly stabilize a fluid military situation, would it turn it around for the better?

The Afghan imbroglio is beset with lethal challenges; a warlord tradition where tribal clans trump nationalism, a narcotics fueled insurgency, and the bedrock of Taliban Islamic fundamentalists. Add the entrenched al-Qaida terrorist connection and one finds a simmering witches brew that more foreign troops and an elusive domestic political solution are wont to solve.

Recent U.N. General Assembly deliberations on Afghanistan raise important points; the Canadian Ambassador Henri-Paul Normandin called on President Karzai's re-election to “Turn its immediate attention to building the legitimacy of the government at all levels ... we look to the government of Afghanistan to undertake serious, credible and visible efforts to improve good governance, combat corruption and promote and protect human rights.”

This is so true given the tainted legitimacy of the recent Afghan presidential elections and the continuing political fallout from the process.

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