Dexter Filkins had this to say immediately afterPresident Obama'sspeech at West Point. "President Obamas commitment Tuesday night to redouble Americas campaign in Afghanistan left unanswered what is perhaps the most decisive question of all: will the Afghans step up too?"Whole thing here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/world/asia/02afghan.html?_r=1&hpThe speech probably made the best case that could be made for what the President has decided. Will it work? Probably not as outlined for some of the reasons Filkins enumerates. (FYI Filkins covered the first Afghan incursion for the LA Times and was in Iraq for the NYTimes and recently back in Afghanistan.)What did you make of the speech and the plan?Update: Here again Juan Cole's assessment of the Afghan "government"; Karzai is not the only problem: http://salon.com/news/opinion/feature/2009/12/01/obama_afghanistanUpdate 2: Here is Steve Coll at the New Yorker, generally supportive but with this proviso: "No matter how nuanced the invocation, Pakistani liberals fighting against the Armys hedging strategy of support for the Taliban and Al Qaeda will be demoralized by the use of a specific date. Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/stevecoll/2009/12/the-speech.html#ixzz0YZXtiwOEUpd3: And Afghan reaction from Carlotta Gall in Kabul: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/03/world/asia/03pstan.html?hp4: My favorite, knowing, and skeptical military observer (ret.), Pat Lang: The generals won--everything http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2009/12/the-generals-won-everything.html (Corrected!)5: Veteran journalist John Burns answers some very good questions: http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/03/ask-john-burns-global-impact-of-afghan-plan/