President Barack Obama has announced the halving of American troops presently stationed in Afghanistan “over the next year”, bringing 34,000 out of 66,000 of them home and pledged to wind up the war by end-2014 when the drawdown would have been completed. He did not, however, reveal how many of the troops would be left behind in the country for the training of Afghan security forces and counter-terrorism efforts. To determine their strength, Mr Obama, who was giving the State of the Union Address, said that the recommendations of allies and Afghan President Hamid Karzai would be taken into account. However, Bruce Riedel, who chaired President Obama’s 2009 review of Afghan policy and is at present at the Brookings Institution think-tank, believes that a crucial factor in this regard would be the extent to which militant phenomenon in Pakistan loses strength. Mr Obama’s resolve to “continue to take direct action against those terrorists who pose the gravest threat to Americans” would seem to endorse Mr Riedel’s assessment; for the words ‘direct action’ have been interpreted to mean the use of drones against militant hideouts in Pakistan and elsewhere. It is a tragic irony that for all the convincing arguments about their backlash in the form of civilian deaths leading to the growth of militant ranks, the US intends persisting in making aerial strikes to target terrorists. Should one hope that Pakistan’s hue and cry against drones that has now been joined by rights groups and legal circles in many parts of the world, including the US, would succeed in bringing round the policymakers in the CIA to end the programme, especially as in Obama’s words al-Qaeda menace is now only a “shadow of its former self”?
Yesterday’s papers also carried two other stories that are relevant to the war in Afghanistan, one containing criticism of the US of its Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter, who resigned last year, and the other about the failure of Doha talks with the Taliban that were designed to evolve a system of governance post-withdrawal. Ambassador Munter bemoaned Washington’s “callousness” over the Salalah killings of 24 Pakistani troops with an AC-130, a powerful gunship, and then delaying to say ‘sorry’ for months that not only further embittered the already strained Pak-US relations, but also cost the US kitty billions of dollars when the supplies had to be routed through Central Asia to reach Afghanistan. His regrets were that his efforts emphasising what the two countries had in common failed to have their impact.
The talks with the Taliban that had taken place at Doha due to the efforts of several countries did not bear fruit as their demand for the release of Taliban prisoners and refusal to recognise the legitimacy of Karzai regime were not met. Both sides would have to find a common ground to get the desired results; for negotiations are the only viable way of putting an end to the turmoil of which Afghans have been victims for over three decades, with all its baleful effect on neighbouring countries, particularly Pakistan.