By Jack Detsch
A new CFR memo calls for an inclusive American policy in the country. Executing that plan could prove tricky
Though President Obama has pledged to keep 12,000 American troops in Afghanistan through the end of the year, it’s no secret that the White House’s focus on the war-torn country is waning. When those troops, largely still in place to train and equip (PDF) the fledging Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and Afghan National Army (ANA), finally depart the country, Kabul will need a new patron to guarantee its security. Who will step up?
A new policy innovation memo authored by Alyssa Ayres, Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations reframes that question as a conversation. For Ayres, Washington must work with Delhi to stabilize Afghanistan’s fragile economy, military, and institutions while doing as much as possible to quell Pakistani anxieties. Can that approach succeed?
It depends on where you look. On Thursday, a green-on-blue attack left an American soldier dead in the eastern province of Nangarhar, another sign that the ANSF’s fight this summer won’t be a walk in the park, with enemy combatants lurking behind the guise of military uniforms. In his quarterly report (PDF) to Congress in January, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan, John F. Sopko, openly feared that American personnel were having trouble adding up the ANA’s true force strength. A revised count showed further attrition in those ranks, with an 8.5 percent drop, to 169,203 troops in January.