Vol. 73/No. 14      April 13, 2009

Two aspects of the strategy are to continue to bolster the Afghan and Pakistani militaries and win over major sections of the Taliban. In the case of the latter, Washington aims to draw on counterinsurgency lessons from the Iraq war to separate those Taliban forces with whom they believe they can reach a peace agreement and will recognize the U.S.-backed Afghan government from those that refuse to break with al-Qaeda.

In outlining the plan President Barack Obama said he would send roughly 4,000 troops to Afghanistan to accelerate the training of new Afghan soldiers. This is in addition to the 17,000 U.S. troops he authorized earlier this year. The Afghan army is projected to increase from 80,000 to 134,000 by 2011. Total U.S. forces are slated to reach about 68,000 in 2009, according to U.S. defense secretary Robert Gates.

Under a United Nations-brokered agreement in Bonn, Germany, following the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, a new Afghan army of 70,000 was to be established. This was achieved in early 2008 under the Bush administration—the force mushroomed from less than 2,000 in March 2003 to 76,000 by May 2008. In January 2008 the goal was increased to 86,000, and then revised again to 134,000 in October.

The Dutch government plans to end its mission in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan after 2010. It left open the possibility of keeping some presence in other parts of the country. Dutch development minister Bert Koenders announced the government would restart economic aid to Pakistan, which was suspended in 2007.

U.S. military spending in Afghanistan, currently at about $2 billion a month, is to increase by about 60 percent this year. Washington will combine this military escalation, Obama said, with “a dramatic increase in our civilian efforts,” as part of laying the groundwork to divide the Taliban.  
 
Counterinsurgency
In addition to increasing their firepower with more boots on the ground, U.S. officials say they have shifted their strategy to decrease the number of civilians killed and place greater emphasis on securing the population from Taliban attacks.

The officials say the plan includes some development projects in Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan where roads are scant and the vast majority of the population lacks access to basic necessities such as clean water, adequate food, and education. Washington is pressing its allies—particularly those who provide little or no troops—to supply funding and personnel for these projects.

With this approach the U.S. director of national intelligence, David Blair, said he believes some two-thirds of Taliban fighters can be convinced to lay down their arms. The new U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, pointed out March 26 that a substantial portion of the current Afghan government had been Taliban at one time.

Washington has also increasingly relied on various wealthy “warlords” in parts of the country who employ their own militias. Washington’s relationship with these forces, many of whom amassed their fortunes in the opium trade, goes back to the war against Soviet occupation in Afghanistan in the 1980s where they fought as part of the U.S.-backed rightist Mujahideen forces.

Washington is also seeking to squeeze the Taliban’s source of funds and support by disrupting money flows from the opium trade in Afghanistan, as well as from their ruling-class patrons in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere.

Washington is set to triple economic aid to Pakistan to $1.5 billion a year and is pressing other nations to follow suit, particularly Pakistan’s allies in China and the Gulf. The U.S. government has provided $10 billion in military aid to Pakistan since 2001.

Following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the Pakistani government turned against and went to war with elements of the Taliban on its own soil.

In addition to working to get support from China and Gulf states, Washington is seeking to work closer with the governments of India, Iran, and Russia. “In 2001, in 2002, we should not forget, Iran provided critical assistance to helping us stabilize Afghanistan,” Sen. John Kerry said March 26.

Iranian deputy foreign minister Mahdi Akhundzadeh took part in an international conference March 31 in the Netherlands on the U.S.-led Afghan war and met with Richard Holbrooke, U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In Pakistan the Taliban control whole swaths of the country’s northwest mountainous region. There, competing factions of the Taliban based in the southern part of the country’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas on the Afghan border have come together to combat U.S.-NATO forces and prepare for what they predict will be a “very bloody” year.
 
 
Related articles:
Socialist campaign: ‘Troops Out Now!’
Washington and Tokyo, threaten North Korea
France rejoins NATO military command  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home