Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

To the Editor:

Re “New Afghan Strategies for the U.S. and Its Foes” (front page, March 27):

As President Obama prepares to increase the United States military commitment to Afghanistan, consideration should be given to the words of Edmund Burke, delivered on March 22, 1775, in the British Parliament, as he warned Britain against the use of force in its dealings with the American colonies:

“The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment, but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again: and a nation is not governed which is perpetually to be conquered.”

I suspect that the estimated 42 million Pashtuns of the region will continue to have little sympathy with the escalation of force by foreign powers.

John C. Webb
Columbus, Ohio, March 27, 2009