PRESIDENT OBAMA is expected to announce this week his plan for Afghanistan and Pakistan, a mess he inherited from his predecessor. With the security of our homeland foremost in his thinking, he was wise to have taken the time to listen to experts and reassess US strategy. Indeed, time and events have helped to clarify the situation. I hope the president will be equally wise and take them into account and urge a more narrow and focused strategy with no further troop buildup.
Pakistan continues to harbor Al Qaeda terrorists who would pose an imminent threat to US national security if they were to take control of that country’s nuclear weapons. Obama’s March report advised that our national security requires us to “disrupt, dismantle, and defeat Al Qaeda and its safe havens in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and prevent their return to either country in the future.’’
To achieve that goal, General Stanley McChrystal suggested a “counterinsurgency’’ strategy, saying that he needs at least 40,000 more US troops in addition to the 68,000 already there. But, he warned: “A foreign army alone cannot beat an insurgency; the insurgency in Afghanistan requires an Afghan solution. This is their war’’ and any success must come “by, with, and through the Afghan government.’’
In other words, without a legitimate and credible Afghan partner, that counterinsurgency strategy is fundamentally flawed. The current Afghan government is neither legitimate nor credible. It has recently been installed by nothing more than a fraudulent political default. President Hamid Karzai now knowingly presides over a culture of corruption, an opium-dependent economy and, so far, has shown neither the credibility nor political will to rid his government of its corrupt warlords and crony power brokers, providing slim hope for “an Afghan solution.’’
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