Taliban faces challenge as Afghan version of the surge in Iraq is about to take place – will Afghanistan be as easy as Iraq for America?
Balaji Reddy
Jan. 1, 2009

Taliban faces challenges. The Al-Queda for the first time seems worried about protecting its bases. In an Afghan version of the surge in Iraq, the U.S. is preparing to pour at least 20,000 extra troops into the south, augmenting 12,500 NATO soldiers who have proved too few to cope with a Taliban insurgency that is fiercer than NATO leaders expected.

Will Afghanistan be as easy as Iraq for America? Some international think tank believes America will face the greatest challenge ever in Afghanistan now. The war will escalate and force America to send additional hundreds of thousands of troops. This is exactly what happened to Soviets.

Obama will realize his naive notion of international politics is ready to be challenged in Afghanistan. They key lies in winning the local warlords in Afghanistan. That is how America was able to close the chapter of Iraq with a graceful exit. The Sunni militia (formerly Saddam’s militia) finally cleansed Iraq from the Al-Queda influences. It is impossible to make a head way in these combats without the support of the local core leadership and the militia.

Afghanistan is different. The terrain supports the guerrilla warfare. The weaker force in traditional sense holds the edge. Time and again, foreign forces have lost their way in Afghanistan. The local warlords are not easy to deal with because the drug money is involved. People of Afghanistan want freedom but not western especially American influence. They consider current Government as a puppet of America. The Pashtun pride doers not tolerate American arrogance and one-sided international politics. Pashtun leaders see not much difference between Bush and Obama.

Can America really win the war in Iraq? Yes, they can but that can only happen by winning the hearts of the Afghan people especially in the South and Southeastern Afghanistan. As of today, America is extremely unpopular. Afghan people have seen foreign forces invading their country, winning for a while, and finally disappear suddenly with total defeat again and again.

The odds do not favor America. America’s biggest problem is its own economy. America does not have the resource to fight an all out war in Afghanistan. It is another three trillion dollar bill. To win this war, America has to bring Afghanistan into the realm of modern developing nations by building new infrastructure, roads, and creating millions of new jobs in Afghanistan. Only then it can win the heart of core Afghani people. That is not going to happen because America is itself a poor country today just like Soviet Union in its last few years before communism got dismantled. A few missiles here and there, bombing indiscriminately from 35,000 feet, a new surge of 20,000 soldiers, their fighting the Taliban embedded within the civilian population will only deteriorate the situation. America needs to fight a political and strategic war against Taliban – not a tactical manifestation of muscle power that is limited by American economy and the current frenzy of printing dollars at the cost of ballooning budget deficit.

Taliban faces challenge as Afghan version of the surge in Iraq is about to take place – will Afghanistan be as easy as Iraq for America?
Balaji Reddy
Taliban faces challenges. The Al-Queda for the first time seems worried about protecting...
READ MORE>>

MORE ARTICLES >>