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US may hasten Afghan troop drawdown
The G-20 summit in Cannes exposed how the western leadership has been pushed to the brink. French President Nicolas Sarkozy hoped to display his leadership qualities by offering to host the G-20, but in the event the summit’s failure may stalk his re-election bid as president six months from now. Sarkozy has good company. George Papandreou, Silvio Berlusconi, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, David Cameron - they too face potentially dire political fallout from the euro zone crisis.
The impact on the Afghan situation can be serious. The war is going to be the last thing on the western leaders’ minds when their house is on fire. That leaves US President Barack Obama with a grim leadership role when his NATO allies gather for the May summit in Chicago.
Thus, the Wall Street Journal story with Washington dateline isn’t surprising -that the Administration is debating an early ’shift’ in the US troops’ role in Afghanistan from a combat mission to an ‘advisory role’ so that a ‘faster drawdown’ than by the envisaged end-2014 timeline is feasible.
Clearly, the objective is to keep the US troops out of harm’s way so that casualties are reduced and the political risks are minimised for Obama in an election year.
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The AFP’s analysis of the thinking to expedite the drawdown ends on a sombre note: “NATO has overseen a dramatic expansion of the [Afghan] security forces with the army set to grow to 195000 and the police to 157000 by October 2012. But out of 173 Afghan battalions, only one is designated by the Pentagon as able to operate independently from the US-led coalition.”
Posted in Military, Politics.
Tagged with US drawdown in Afghanistan.
By M K Bhadrakumar – November 5, 2011
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The G-20 summit in Cannes exposed how the western leadership has been pushed to the brink. French President Nicolas Sarkozy hoped to display his leadership qualities by offering to host the G-20, but in the event the summit’s failure may stalk his re-election bid as president six months from now. Sarkozy has good company. George Papandreou, Silvio Berlusconi, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, David Cameron - they too face potentially dire political fallout from the euro zone crisis.
The impact on the Afghan situation can be serious. The war is going to be the last thing on the western leaders’ minds when their house is on fire. That leaves US President Barack Obama with a grim leadership role when his NATO allies gather for the May summit in Chicago.
Thus, the Wall Street Journal story with Washington dateline isn’t surprising -that the Administration is debating an early ’shift’ in the US troops’ role in Afghanistan from a combat mission to an ‘advisory role’ so that a ‘faster drawdown’ than by the envisaged end-2014 timeline is feasible.
Clearly, the objective is to keep the US troops out of harm’s way so that casualties are reduced and the political risks are minimised for Obama in an election year.
Of course, a decision of this nature can always be argued out in terms of the exigencies of the war - that the earlier the Afghan forces assume responsibility for security, the better, and so on. But it is essentially a decision to retreat - and, most important, it will be seen that way by the insurgents, and that perception will give them a sense of triumphalism and will steel their resolve to pitch for the victory that they already sense as within reach
The AFP’s analysis of the thinking to expedite the drawdown ends on a sombre note: “NATO has overseen a dramatic expansion of the [Afghan] security forces with the army set to grow to 195000 and the police to 157000 by October 2012. But out of 173 Afghan battalions, only one is designated by the Pentagon as able to operate independently from the US-led coalition.”
Posted in Military, Politics.
Tagged with US drawdown in Afghanistan.
By M K Bhadrakumar – November 5, 2011
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