The Debate To Which You Should be Paying Attention - Abu Muqawama
Gang, the most important debate this past week was not the one between McCain and Romney or the one between Obama and Clinton. The most important debate this week was the debate, still ongoing, within national security circles on how we manage commitments in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Afghanistan Study Group Report - General James Jones, USMC (Ret), and Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering, The Center for the Study of the Presidency
Afghanistan stands today at a crossroads. The progress achieved after six years of international engagement is under serious threat from resurgent violence, weakening international resolve, mounting regional challenges and a growing lack of confidence on the part of the Afghan people about the future direction of their country. The United States and the international community have tried to win the struggle in Afghanistan with too few military forces and insufficient economic aid, and without a clear and consistent comprehensive strategy to fill the power vacuum outside Kabul and to counter the combined challenges of reconstituted Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a runaway opium economy, and the stark poverty faced by most Afghans.
Afghanistan Study Group Report Released - Steve Schippert, ThreatsWatch
The Center for the Study of the Presidency has released their Afghanistan Study Group Report (PDF), warning that gains made in Afghanistan beyond Kabul against al-Qaeda and the Taliban risk being lost without an influx of forces and a unified international approach.
More in Afghanistan - Max Boot, Commentary
Even as the situation in Iraq has been improving, things seem to be getting worse in Afghanistan. The Karzai government looks weak and ineffectual (hence the rumors that America's Afghan-born ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, is exploring a run to succeed Karzai), while the Taliban and Al Qaeda are looking stronger thanks to their sanctuaries in the tribal areas of Pakistan.
NATO is having a hard time meeting its responsibilities in the south because so few of its members are —to fight. The Canadians, British, Australians, and Dutch are welcome exceptions, but attempts to get the Germans and other nations to step have gotten nowhere. Even the Canadians and others who are —to fight are having trouble doing so because of equipment shortages. This Financial Times article gives a good overview of the parlous state of the south.
Afghanistan Report Warns of 'Failed State' - Peter Spiegel, Los Angeles Times
The international effort to stabilize Afghanistan is faltering and urgently needs thousands of additional US and coalition troops, an influential group of American diplomatic and military experts concluded in a report issued Wednesday.
The independent study finds that the Taliban, which two years ago was largely viewed as a defeated movement, has been able to infiltrate and control sizable parts of southern and southeastern Afghanistan, leading to widespread disillusionment among Afghans with the mission.
NATO on the Edge - Max Boot, Commentary
The increasingly worrisome situation in Afghanistan is of concern not only for what it portends about the future of that country but also the future of NATO which is in charge of pacifying that country. This is NATO's first "out of area" mission, and by all accounts it is not going all that well. Tensions are rising among members of the alliance, as seen in the furor in Germany last week after Defense Secretary Bob Gates asked Germany to send its troops where the action is—down south. If NATO fails in Afghanistan, the alliance will not survive, at least not as a credible military force.
Wheels Coming off NATO's Afghan Mission? - David Betz, Kings of War
As we've discussed already on this blog much of the heavy lifting in Afghanistan is being done by a handful of NATO members: the US, UK, Canada, Netherlands, and Denmark. All, including the US, are overstretched but perhaps none more so than the Canadian Forces. Canada has superb, professional light infantry but the country basically started to claim its Cold War peace dividend about two and a half decades before the Cold War actually ended. It's a small force, chronically overstretched and underfunded. I'm not sure if it's starting to crack or Prime Minister Harper is bluffing--maybe both, actually.
US Afghan Stand-off Puzzles NATO Allies - Caroline Wyatt, BBC
The recent attempts by the US to urge its allies to boost their combat roles in southern Afghanistan has both puzzled and antagonised some NATO members, who see it as unconstructive and driven mainly by America's domestic politics.
In a rather testy answer to US Defence Secretary Robert Gates' demands for more combat troops, Germany has made it clear it is doing all it can in northern Afghanistan.
Afghanistan in Trouble - David Axe, Danger Room
... at a time when Canada -- one of the ass-kickingest members of the Afghanistan coalition -- is threatening to pull out its troops if other NATO members don't pony up more soldiers, choppers and cash. Such a move by Canada could undermine NATO's relevance in a post-Soviet world, some say. The US is promising a few thousand extra Marines, but as The Netherlands proved this summer, a battalion-sized commitment and a handful of deaths are all that many NATO nations will tolerate.
Afghanistan a Failed State (Again?) - Abu Muqawama
The US tried to goad NATO into sending more troops and ended up sending 3000 of its own Marines. Last Charlie checked, that's not an option for Canada. Will NATO call their bluff, too? If so, we might just have to relegate them to the Warsaw-Pact-dustbin-of-history. Because, man, they are so not worth the trouble.
The NATO Emerging in Afghanistan - Victoria Nuland, Washington Post
It's sometimes easy to take our allies for granted or to wonder if they are up to the challenge in a place such as Afghanistan. Today, 25 NATO allies and 14 other nations contribute to the mission there alongside American and Afghan troops. Three years ago, only a handful of us were fighting the Taliban. The 28,000 non-US forces and 13 non-US Provincial Reconstruction Teams in place across Afghanistan have allowed American and Afghan forces to focus on the fierce battlegrounds in the east. The war is tough, but without allied help it would be much tougher.
US Strategy on Taliban Attacked - Daniel Dombey, Demetri Sevastopulo and Jon Boone, Financial Times
The Bush administration's stance on Afghanistan is coming under increasing domestic criticism, as legislators from both US parties and a retired Nato general hit out at what they say is a failing effort to defeat the Taliban.
The debate shifted yesterday to the US Senate, where senior administration officials defended themselves against the findings of a high-profile report co-authored by General James Jones, who until the end of 2006 was supreme commander of Nato's forces and so responsible for troops in the country.
US 'Surge' Could Sweep Canada out of Afghanistan - Iain Hunter, Times Colonist
One of several think- tanks that have dumped all over the Bush administration this week for failures in Afghanistan is called the Center for the Study of the Presidency.
What I find interesting about the report and that of other bodies testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is that this conflict is being increasingly recognized as a US conflict, just like the invasion of Iraq.
Germany Rebuffs US On Troops in Afghanistan - Craig Whitlock, Washington Post
Germany on Friday rejected a formal request from the United States to send forces to war zones in southern Afghanistan, the latest setback to the NATO alliance as it tries to scrape together enough troops to battle resurgent Taliban forces and stabilize the country.
A Toxic Cocktail: Pakistan's Growing Instability - J Alexander Thier, US Institute of Peace
Pakistan, a nuclear-armed, predominantly Muslim nation of 165 million, has experienced a dramatic rise in political turmoil and violence in the last year. Following the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on December 27, 2007, analysts have raised serious concerns about Pakistan's stability and the possibility of a collapse of the federation.
Putting the Pressure on Musharraf - Westhawk
We have known for some time now that President Musharraf turned down the US request for a higher level of US military involvement inside Pakistan. So what is the new news in this article?
The purpose of the article, from the perspective of those in the US government who spoke on background with the New York Times, is to increase the pressure on Mr. Musharraf. These US government officials want everyone to know that they have tried to get aggressive about the problems in Pakistan (and by extension, Afghanistan), that they have proposed new ideas about the Pakistan problem, and that they have tried their best to cooperate with Mr. Musharraf and his government.
Top al-Qaida Figure Killed in Pakistan - Robert Reid and Pamela Hess, Associated Press
A missile from a US Predator drone struck a suspected terrorist safehouse in Pakistan and killed a top al-Qaida commander believed responsible for attacks on US forces and the brazen bombing during a visit last year by Vice President Dick Cheney to Afghanistan, a US official said Thursday.
Militants' Entrenchment Exposed in Pakistan - Associated Press
The US missile strike that killed a top al-Qaida commander just over a mile from a Pakistani military base shows how entrenched Islamic militants are in the lawless tribal regions, where extremists have launched increasingly bold attacks.
The targeting of Abu Laith al-Libi also suggests American intelligence is improving and that President Pervez Musharraf is —to turn a blind eye to attacks along the Afghan border if they avoid civilian casualties.
Operations in South Waziristan Halted for Peace Talks - Bill Roggio, The Long War Journal
Just 10 days after the Pakistani military launched an offensive to clear the Taliban from South Waziristan, the fighting has been put on hold to conduct peace talks. Meanwhile, the Taliban is conducting internal negotiations with Mullah Nazir for all pro-Uzbek Taliban leaders to return to South Waziristan.
US Intelligence Failures: Dual Taliban Campaigns - Herschel Smith, Captain's Journal
In Taliban Campaigns in Afghanistan and Pakistan, we analyzed the Asia Times report that "Mullah Omar has sacked his own appointed leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, the main architect of the fight against Pakistani security forces, and urged all Taliban commanders to turn their venom against North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces." Mullah Omar hasn't forgotten about Afghanistan, and his ultimate aim is to govern her again. The focus on Pakistan internal struggles by Baitullah Mehsud is to Mullah Omar a distraction from what the real aim of the Taliban should be,