The war in Afghanistan has been raging for eight years. Whether you are opposed to or in favor of the military situation in the country, one thing is certain: Everyone is calling for a respectable end to the war.
The top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, has requested 40,000 American troops to fight in the region.
This is a very serious request as the U.S. already has about 68,000 troops on the ground in the country.
McChrystal is a good man and a great commander. Last week, he gave a speech in London that called any scale-down of troops “short-sighted.” This was in response to President Barack Obama taking into consideration Vice President Joe Biden’s advice to use unmanned drone aircrafts to strike the Taliban and scaling background operations, a more modern form of combat.
This could be seen as a disruption of the chain of command.
As much as some people in this country would like to cut our losses and head home, we can’t.
We have to leave Afghanistan better than we found it and cannot let it fall back into the hands of the Taliban. Or for that matter, have it became a breeding ground for al-Qaida to grow and operate.
Afghanistan’s neighboring country is Pakistan, a country that does not have a stable government but does have nuclear weapons. A politically weak Pakistan is not in the best interest of the United States. The U.S. has been urging Pakistan to un-root the Taliban and al-Qaida from their hiding grounds along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Recently, the Pakistani government has, in order to push the terror groups back into Afghanistan, began to attack them in their strong holds.
The terror groups have pushed back with a series of suicide bombings against the Pakistani people, most recently the attacks in the Shangla district that killed 24 people.
Obama is waiting for a resolution to the Afghan presidential election before making any decisions concerning military strategy.
A United Nations election panel has been appointed to address any allegations of fraud.
Incumbent Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been accused of ballot stuffing by his chief opponent Abdullah Abdullah.
The top U.N. official on the panel, Kai Eide, acknowledged “widespread fraud” in the election. Their recommendation of whether to throw enough votes out to cause a run-off election is expected soon.
Afghanistan cannot be won by military force. That country has shown this time and time again in its history. It must be won politically and economically.
Pakistan is following through, with U.S. pressure, in pushing al-Qaida and the Taliban back in Afghanistan. But it is also waiting for a decision from Obama about U.S. involvement in the region. A stable economy has to be created in Afghanistan in order to hold any Taliban or al-Qaida recruiting at bay.
A new military policy is needed in the country and it may not involve 40,000 American troops.
Cratic is a senior studying political science.
