Losing Ground in Afghanistan; Afghanistan: Violence Spreads to West

[ProSense]

Editorial

Losing Ground in Afghanistan

Published: July 23, 2006

Things are not going well in Afghanistan, the original front in the war on terrorism.

American and NATO casualties are rising in some of the deadliest fighting since 2001. The Taliban are enjoying a resurgence in presence and power, especially in their traditional southern and eastern strongholds. And with civilian casualties mounting and economic reconstruction in many areas stalled by inadequate security, the American-backed government is in danger of losing the battle for Afghan hearts and minds. If this battle is lost, there can be no lasting military success against the Taliban and their Qaeda allies.

There is still a chance to turn things around. The first step must be enhanced security, so that foreign and local civilians can carry out reconstruction projects. That will require a large and long-term foreign military presence, with a large American component. Unfortunately, Washington is headed in a different direction. With the Army overstretched in Iraq and Congressional elections coming up, the Pentagon is moving to prematurely reduce already inadequate American troop strength.

The plan is for European and Canadian NATO forces to step in and provide security for civilian teams in southern and eastern Afghanistan while the remaining Americans concentrate on fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda. This is a new variant of the Bush administration’s misbegotten theory that Americans should be war-fighters and leave nation-building to others.

There are two big problems with this. First, in violent situations like that in southern Afghanistan, NATO can assure security only if America, its leading member, provides reconnaissance, transport and combat support. Second, the idea that American troops are there not to bring security to Afghans but to hunt down the Taliban — and too bad if Afghan civilians are caught in the cross-fire — is a disastrous approach to counterinsurgency warfare. It has not worked in Iraq and it is not working in Afghanistan.

In the end, international military efforts can only buy time to build an Afghanistan its own people will fight to defend after Western troops leave. In addition to foreign aid, that will require improved performance by the government of President Hamid Karzai, which has been plagued by corruption and hobbled by the alliances it has made with local warlords to extend its authority beyond Kabul.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/23/opinion/23sun1.html

July 25, 2006
World Briefing | Asia

Afghanistan: Violence Spreads to West

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Hundreds of heavily armed Taliban militants drove into the town of Bakwa in Farah Province in about 35 pickup trucks and attacked a police headquarters with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, killing three officers, while the authorities killed four suspected suicide bombers on motorbikes in the same province, as the violence that has ravaged the south crept into the west. Two Afghans — a doctor and driver working for the international aid group World Vision — were gunned down after delivering medicine to a town in western Ghor Province. In the south, meanwhile, two coalition soldiers were seriously wounded in a suicide car bombing near Kandahar. A coalition spokesman declined to give the soldiers’ nationalities or identities.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/25/world/asia/25briefs-001.html