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Thursdays detonation in Afghanistan of the massive GBU 43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, also known as the Mother of All Bombs (MOAB) could be for this war what the Tet Offensive was for Vietnam: a tactical military success that became the iconic symbol of a war gone hopelessly wrong.

Famed CBS correspondent Walter Cronkites poignant post-Tet commentary woke up Americans to that wars strategic bankruptcy. The MOAB should do the same for Afghanistan. Fortunately, there is still time to win this one.

I have known General Nicholson for nearly ten years. There is no senior American official with more experience in the country. He must have carefully considered the use of the bomb and made a sound decision on the military considerations. Therein lies the rub.

Afghan responses in the Twittersphere reflect the polarizing nature of this intractable conflict. Pro-government voices applaud the strike and note the absence of civilian casualties. Critics use the strike to stoke outrage. They decry what they call the continued use of Afghan soil as a testing ground for massive weapons. Former President Hamid Karzai, whom the United States supported after the fall of the Taliban, took to Twitter to condemn the strike and called on Afghans to put a stop to U.S. military operations. The Taliban likely are pleased with the strike. They detest IS-K as much or more than they despise the Afghan government.

These responses were entirely predictable, but whatever effort was coordinated to limit the potential fallout seems ineffective. Unless the United States and Afghan governments can provide extensive post-strike analysis that justifies the bombing in the minds of Afghans, civil unrest becomes likely. Combined with high levels of dissatisfaction with the government, unemployment likely reaching 50 percent, an ongoing refugee crisis, heightened tensions with Pakistan, and steady advances by the Taliban, such unrest could explode into catastrophe. I wrote in 2015 about exactly this kind of calamity arising and how to prevent it.

The fact of the matter is that no American in Kabul oversees the full-range of U.S. political, diplomatic, military, economic, and intelligence operations in Afghanistan. Each agency operates in its own bureaucratic silo. As consistently happens in war, business, and government, silos can undermine performance and even lead to disaster.

The only person with the authority and responsibility to manage the full-range of American efforts in Afghanistan is President Trump. He is also the only one who can do so regarding conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia, not to mention ongoing challenges with North Korea, Iran, Russia, and China. This absurd situation is a major reason why the worlds greatest military cannot seem to win any wars. It also helps to explain why so much in-silo progress made at such expense consistently fails to add up to strategic success.

How can President Trump prevent the MOAB from becoming Afghanistans Tet?

First, he needs to put somebody in charge of the full range of American efforts in Afghanistan immediately. There is no U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan. Key senior officials in State and Defense have yet to be nominated. The most logical person, therefore, is General Nicholson. He has the experience, relationships, breadth of vision, and intellectual courage to handle the responsibility. He is also in Kabul.

Second, he needs to develop a realistic Afghanistan policy and direct Nicholson to develop an integrated strategy to achieve a successful outcome. The Afghan strategy has been adrift since 2010, as the Obama administration fixated on troop withdrawals. National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster needs to complete the policy review so Nicholson and an interagency team can begin making a strategy worthy of the name.

The MOAB does not need to become a new symbol of expensive failure. Americans need to begin asking what the hell is going on and demand the Trump administration deliver realistic aims, a credible strategy, and proper war management. The stakes are worth it.

Christopher D. Kolenda(@Chris_Kolenda) isa senior fellow at the Global Policy Center and author of Focused Engagement,a critically acclaimed report on Afghanistan with the Center for a New American Security.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

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Afghanistan is at risk of becoming the new Vietnam - The Hill (blog)

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

Steeped in centuries of seemingly impenetrable tea tradition, Afghanistans capital is getting a little coffee buzz.

Nargis Aziz Shahi says business has been increasing day by day since she opened iCafe a couple of weeks ago. Looking a little like a brick-walled Starbucks with a distinctively homey Afghan feel, its attracting a mostly youthful clientele drawn by free internet service and books to peruse over a cup or two.

There were three key objectives that led me open the cafe: 1) to introduce coffee to Afghans who mostly dont know coffee and its taste and benefits; 2) to provide a place for our youth to carry out social activities; and 3) to provide job opportunities for young people, Shahi told VOAs Afghan service.

Tea came to Afghanistan early

Afghanistan was introduced to tea early because of its location on ancient trade routes. The Chinese traded silk and tea for other commodities. Tea became part of the countrys hospitality for guests. Just about every family has its own recipe.

Today, Afghanistan is the worlds largest tea consumer, with each person consuming an average of almost 4.5 kilograms more than 1,500 cups per year in 2012. By comparison, the U.S. ranked 72nd at 0.4 kilograms per person.

Only the Russian Federation and Britain, with much larger populations, import more tea.

Coffee culture gets a start

Dr. Nabi Misdaq, adviser to President Ashraf Ghani, has visited iCafe. He regards coffee drinking as a new, enlightening culture in Afghanistan.

It is a good beginning, Misdaq said. It is a profitable business, because many young people come here to read books and exchange ideas. I am sure that this will also lead to the opening of new shops.

The cafe also serves as a place for young Afghans to carry out social and cultural activities. They come to iCafe to attend literary programs and poetry contests.

The female customers say there are few other places where they can get together and entertain themselves, but they maintain that they come to the shop to relax and enjoy.

I am very happy that we have a coffee shop in Kabul, said customer Samira Seerat. It is a very good place for women to visit. There are in fact no appropriate places for women in Kabul, and Afghanistan as a whole, to visit, because our people believe that women cannot go to restaurants.

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New Kabul Coffee Shop Aims for Success in Tea-dominated Afghanistan - Voice of America

Fox News celebrated the attack with a Toby Keith song. Photograph: Handout/AFP/Getty Images

The US dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb ever used in combat on eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing at least 36 Isis militants and, as local people told the Guardian, sending tremors through the ground like a boat in a storm as flames enveloped the sky.

But to Fox News which celebrated the bombing in an excited segment of the show Fox and Friends on Friday morning this was what freedom looked like.

Grainy black-and-white footage of a bomb exploding and flattened Afghanistan desert played on the morning show, accompanied with country music, as if it were a music video.

You hear Mother Freedom / Start ringin her bell / And it feels like the whole wide world is raining down on you / Brought to you courtesy of the red, white and blue, crooned country singer Toby Keith, timed perfectly with the explosion.

That videos black and white, but that is what freedom looks like, declared Fox anchor Ainsley Earhardt. Thats the red, white and blue.

The talkshow host Geraldo Rivera replied: One of my favorite things, in the 16 years Ive been here at Fox News, is watching bombs drop on bad guys.

But while Fox News applauded the Afghanistan bomb footage, others in the US media were a little more skeptical.

Thursdays bombing had a feeling of deja vu, wrote CNNs national security analyst Peter Bergen, referring to the deadly daisy-cutter bombs used in Afghanistan in 2001. Thats a useful reminder that very few military campaigns are won from the air.

On the more liberally minded MSNBC show Morning Joe, guests seemed sceptical about the need for the bomb.

This is a strange use of this very large ordinance, said David Ignatius, a foreign policy commentator.

I think the statement is: Hey folks, the gloves are off. The military benefits of using it in Afghanistan in this way are probably limited but the signal is pretty powerful, said Ignatius.

Apart from that of Fox News, the media reactions were more subdued than those last week when 58 Tomahawk missiles were dropped on Syrian airfields in retaliation for the use of chemical weapons against civilians, and the media greeted the news excitedly.

I think Donald Trump became president of the United States last night, said Fareed Zakaria, host of CNNs flagship foreign affairs program, after the Syria attack.

The New York Times headlined an opinion piece On Syria attack, Trumps heart came first before later toning it down online.

It was hard not to feel some sense of emotional satisfaction, and justice done, when American cruise missiles struck an airfield in Syria on Thursday, read a Times editorial.

Brian Williams, the NBC host who publicly fell from grace after he presented falsehoods about his experiences, called the footage of the US military striking Syria beautiful pictures twice, and noted: I am tempted to quote the late Leonard Cohen: Im guided by the beauty of our weapons, a reference to the Cohen song First We Take Manhattan.

I mean this with all due respect: the sales department at the Pentagon, especially in the era of moving pictures, is very effective, Williams said.

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Fox News sets Afghanistan bombing to Toby Keith song as other outlets voice doubt - The Guardian

New York Times

Donald Trump, United Airlines, Afghanistan: Your Evening Briefing New York Times 1. China called for calm on all sides as North Korea intensified its saber-rattling ahead of its founder's day celebrations, and a United States Navy strike group approached the region. The North said on Friday that it could annihilate American ... and more »

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Donald Trump, United Airlines, Afghanistan: Your Evening Briefing - New York Times

A retired U.S. Marine said that former President Obama should have supported dropping the 'Mother of all Bombs' while he was the commander-in-chief.

Staff Sgt. Joey Jones, who lost both his legs in Afghanistan in 2010 when an IED exploded, said on "The O'Reilly Factor" that the incident happened when he was sent into a ghost town that was littered with improvised explosive devices.

"The commanders were given the opportunity to use a bomb instead of sending more green beret in there to die. That's amazing to me, that's a change in procedure and it's something that I feel like we should recognize," Jones, of Peachtree City, Georgia, said.

While tweeting about the MOAB that was used earlier this week in Syria, he got into an argument with another veteran and clarified why he feels there's been a shift coming from the top.

"It's a change of perspective, a change of intent from our commander in chief," Jones said. "What's more important, our lives and hte mission at hand or how it's perceived in the world?"

Although pundits have speculated about the "statement" the bomb might be sending to Iran and North Korea, as well as Syria's Assad, Jones believes the real statement was made to the American men and women serving in combat roles fighting ISIS.

"The most important message it sent is to the troops on the ground--it's letting them know that when they have to make a tough choice or a strategic choice, they now can do that," he said. "If they have an opportunity to accomplish the mission without putting their necks on the line every single day, that's now an option."

Jones added that in 2010, he felt unsupported by the White House. But based on the feedback he's gotten and what he believes now, the Marines now feel supported in a different way by President Donald Trump.

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Retired Marine who lost his legs in Afghanistan: Obama should have ... - Fox News