Grabbing the Wolf's Tail
Keep Foreign Troops in Afghanistan
GARDEZ, Afghanistan —
... Fear of a Taliban resurgence is so widespread that it is hurting property prices and the value of Afghanistan’s currency, scaring investors away and impelling Afghans to seek foreign asylum. Worries about the year ahead are a kind of pathology here.
In the short term, the Taliban are very unlikely to take over the country, or even march on major cities, but trouble should be expected in smaller outposts. Peace negotiations with the Taliban have stalled. This, combined with the imminent pullout of foreign forces, has given insurgents renewed confidence that the military balance of power will shift in their favor.
Afghan and American leaders must sign a bilateral security agreement to allow a modest number of NATO troops to stay. Afghan forces need more helicopters, as well as logistics, intelligence and medical support. They will need, at a minimum, the $4.1 billion in annual funding promised by participants at the NATO summit in Chicago in 2012.
There is no other option, according to a local journalist in Gardez:
“Fighting in Afghanistan is like grabbing a wolf’s tail, While you hold on, you’re worried it will bite you. But if you let go, you are sure it will bite you.”
Graeme Smith
is a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group and the author
of “The Dogs Are Eating Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan.”
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