EDITORIAL : NEW STRAITS TIMES, MALAYSIA

 

 

An exit strategy

THE phased withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan has not been to the liking of the neo-cons on Capitol Hill and the generals in the Pentagon. To be sure, with forces stretched thinner, the military gains in southern Afghanistan could be undermined, and plans for a deeper engagement with the enemy in their strongholds would have to be scaled back. But there's no reason to believe that more could be achieved militarily by recalling troops at a slower pace. The fact is that the generals have had a decade to fight without accomplishing anything that resembles victory on the ground. At best, the Taliban has been on the back foot but hardly battered and broken. Indeed, the idea that the Taliban can be completely defeated must be regarded as a pipe dream. In any event, with at least 68,000 soldiers, special forces and drones remaining after the 33,000 have gone home -- the pre-surge strength -- there is still a lot of military firepower left, and acknowledged as much by the Taliban in its dismissal of the withdrawal as "symbolic".

While hawks and doves may disagree about the timetable, what has become clear, as United States President Barack Obama said on Wednesday, is that the Americans cannot continue to "police" the streets or "patrol" the mountains of Afghanistan "indefinitely". To Obama's credit, just as he did not try to stay the course in Iraq until victory was secured, he is keeping his promise to pull out the additional troops in Afghanistan as scheduled. While there are doubts about the ability of the weak government in Kabul to take over responsibility for the nation's security, there is no question that it is time for the Afghan government to deliver. In fact, the exit dates could help to force the pace of change in the country.

No doubt Obama's plans for re-election figured in the decision. But he was also following through on the attainment of the strategic aim of denying al-Qaeda a safe-haven in Afghanistan that was largely achieved with the killing of Osama bin Laden. It is also a measure of Obama's pragmatic approach that there is no grandiose design to "make Afghanistan a perfect place" but a realistic recognition that the conflict cannot be resolved by force of arms but through a political solution. As the basic precondition by the Taliban for a settlement at the negotiating table is that all foreign troops leave the country, the hope is that the pullout presages the American exit from Afghanistan and the end of a long war.