Afghan War Debate Now Leans to Focus on Al Qaeda

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s national security team is moving to reframe its war strategy by emphasizing the campaign against Al Qaeda in Pakistan while arguing that the Taliban inAfghanistan do not pose a direct threat to the United States, officials said Wednesday.

Source: NYT

I disagree with the assessment up to a point. Sure, Pakistan scares me more because they have nuclear weapons and an intelligence service that is still riddled with Qaeda sympathizers. However, its that porous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan where the Qaeda is hiding (mind you under Pakistani protection in Waziristan) that should be secured to prevent their easy access in and out.

So, both areas are an immediate security threat and should be secured. Joe Biden has a point but he just does not see the bigger picture I think. The Talib’s and Qaeda both are running rampant throughout the countries and both need to be secured in order to round up all the players.

Frankly though, they will have a much harder time of it in Pakistan trying to get not only the people behind the efforts, but also to change the paradigm of how things are run there. Right now I fear that the graft, right wing religious bents, and overall climate will only lead to a nuclear device being exfiltrated out of the country and eventually used against the world.

I also don’t think that the US populace really understands the political and religious morays in the region well enough to make a decision here. All that really seems to be the case for the temperature of the nation now is “troop reduction is what we want” and I can’t blame them. Iraq is, was, and always will be a debacle that we were led into under false pretense. It’s a war that should not have been (yet) and we should have focused on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran long ago. Instead we went into a strong man’s hood and kicked his ass, only opening the door for the shaheed to pour in and create an insurgent war.

In the end, the American populace and the president and veep, need to see that we are in deep and there will be no pulling out for some time to come. Lets start focusing on shoring and securing Pakistan while cutting off that exfiltration point for Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Lets tighten the noose and not let them get that flow of shaheed, weapons, and food eh?

All scenarios require more boots on the ground… But they also require smart and cohesive plans. Look at what the Russians did in Afghanistan. Even with all their forces they still lost to a rag tag band of goatherds in the mountains…

Das vidanya comrades..