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July 24, 2008
Exclusive: Securing Afghanistan
Col. Jeff Bearor, (USMC, ret.)
What do you really know about Afghanistan? It’s the home of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda? The Taliban are the bad guys? The movie, Charlie Wilson’s War?
If your focus has been “all Iraq, all the time” you are right in step with the vast majority of folks who care about winning the “Long War.” But you should not forget that the extremist disease that first began to grow in the Middle East metastasized into the full blown cancer that is al Qaeda and its world-wide spin-offs in Afghanistan.
After our initial stunning success in Afghanistan we were lulled into a misguided view that we had figured out how to fight in a desolate and violent region of the world that had, over the centuries, absorbed many foreign armies and spit out their defeated shells. While defeating Saddam and his henchmen and liberating Iraq was always left over unfinished business from the first Gulf War, managing the aftermath of the March to Baghdad became near all consuming for both our political and military leadership at the expense of the campaign in Afghanistan.
The national leadership had to make hard decisions about where to focus our efforts. They decided that Iraq had primacy of effort and resources and subsequently we passed the “flag” for the fight in Afghanistan to our NATO allies. We determined that campaign - where we had so much initial success so early - could be handled, frankly, by less than our full effort. And while many of our allies have proven themselves effective at both fighting and nation building in Afghanistan, many have been unwilling or unable to put in the resources needed to have a fully positive effect.
So, what do you really know about Afghanistan and the ongoing fight against al Qaeda, their Taliban supporters, and extremist in that country who believe the 16th century was the high point of civilization?
Afghanistan is one-third larger in both land mass and population than Iraq; has little in the way of national infrastructure and has very limited natural resources. Western Afghanistan and the border regions of Pakistan contain some of the most forbidding terrain for military operations in the world. The boundary line between Afghanistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan, the Durand Line, is literally meaningless to the mainly Pashtun people who live along the border. Successive Pakistani governments have never had control over these regions.
Al Qaeda and the Taliban have found sanctuary in the FATA and NFWP and support among the people and tribes there. The enemies of the west and of the Afghan people have been able to refit and rebuild capabilities largely protected from U.S. forces and our allies and mostly untroubled by the Pakistani government and military. Some have argued that Pakistan is playing both sides of the fight, professing support for our goals in Afghanistan and the region while, if not providing outright support for the Taliban, at least turning a blind eye to what is happening in its own territory.
The answer to winning in Afghanistan is absolutely obvious. Just as in Iraq, it will take U.S. boots on the ground to change the security dynamic in Afghanistan. We must accelerate nation building efforts in Afghanistan and this is where our NATO allies can most usefully bring their military and economic capabilities to bear.
Along with these efforts in Afghanistan, we must fully bring our diplomatic power to bear to ensure the Pakistani government is making every effort to prosecute a police and, if necessary, a military campaign on their territory to remove Taliban and Al Qaeda sanctuaries. Pakistan’s government and its hold over its population is iffy at best and some argue we shouldn’t press so hard that our efforts push Pakistan into crisis. I would argue that Pakistan is already in crisis and that any pressure we bring that presses them to get their internal house in order is good for them, and good for us.
The very last thing we need is for Afghanistan - or Pakistan for that matter - to become protected and uncontested safe havens for terrorist and extremists. We must fully compete for control in these areas.
The good news is we have the most brilliantly capable armed forces in the world and they can win this fight just as they have in Iraq. The bad news is, it appears there may be no rest for our weary warriors or their families anytime soon.
The views expressed by this author are his own.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Col. Jeff Bearor, (USMC, ret.) served more than 30 years on active duty with the U.S. Marine Corps before retiring in January 2006. He also served as a military detailee in the CIA Counter-Terrorist Center, as the Fleet Marine Officer/Force Protection Officer for the U.S. FIFTH Fleet in Manama, Bahrain, and as the Chief of Current Operations, J3 at the U.S. Central Command.
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