| Publication |
2009.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
The situation in Afghanistan has turned so far against the United States, NATO, the international community, and those Afghans who originally hoped that the post-11 September 2001 intervention would finally bring them a chance for normal lives, that it will be very difficult to salvage. Al-Qaeda has established a new safe haven in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, from which it supports insurgencies in Afghanistan and Pakistan and continues its global planning against the United States and its allies. Its press releases are so frequent that they are hardly newsworthy unless they feature video of Osama bin Laden himself. Negative trends in Afghanistan include the deterioration of security, Afghan governance and regional stability. The stability of Pakistan, a nuclear-weapons state that has been the main source of proliferation over the past two decades, is now at serious risk. Rising India-Pakistan tensions further exacerbate the regional risk, as do tensions over Iran's nuclear programme and its relations with Hizbullah and Hamas.
The task in Afghanistan would have been difficult under any circumstances. The Bush administration's unique record of incompetence, fecklessness and criminality has assured that the Obama administration inherits its responsibilities under the worst possible circumstances, not only in the region, but globally as well. Still, as President Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said of the economic situation, 'You never want a serious crisis to go to waste'.
This serious crisis may finally force equally serious thinking about the goals of the international intervention in Afghanistan and the means required to have any serious hope of attaining or approaching them. Rather than proclaim objectives limited only by the audacity of our imaginations (an Islamic democratic, stable, gender-sensitive and prosperous Afghanistan) and the paucity of our means (fewer resources per capita than any other such operation), we need to align objectives with reality, and means with objectives.
|