US President Barack Obama knows the Afghan government is corrupt and unpopular but it is what he has to work with nonetheless. The goal of war under President George W. Bush was to destroy Al-Qaida and prevent it from operating from Afghanistan ever again. But the war has dragged on and on, from 2001 to 2010, and now President Obamas administration is trying to withdraw (dis)gracefully from Afghanistan. But Presidents own position on the situation is not without contradictions. He pledged another 30,000 troops to support the Karzai government but, in the same breath, also announced that US troops would start to return home by July 2011. By setting a timetable, he has unnerved not only the Karzai government but also its allies while bolstering the morale of Taliban militants. Americas involvement in Afghanistan is costing it an estimated $100 billion a year. In these cash-strapped times, it cannot afford to fight a war on a piece of land whose occupation had thwarted attempts by both the imperial Britain and mighty Soviet Union. A pity America is not prepared to learn from history. The Karzai government needs to rein in widespread corruption that is turning Afghan people against their own government and the western alliance. America has to work, and work a lot, at its stated strategy of winning hearts and minds that General David Petraeus also proposes to pursue. But hearts and mind cannot be won by bullets and occupation. The Afghan people are tired, angry and frustrated after three decades of instability, unrest and shortages. They long for stability and order, even if it means living under the much-despised, tyrannical Taliban. -S. MEHMOOD, Lahore, July 22.