Revisit Afghan Endgame

Bruce Riedel, writing for Brookings, provides us with his opinion on what is to be done in Afghanistan. He says that President Obama's decision to publicly lay out his timeline for ending American troop involvement in Afghanistan was a mistake. Riedel also informs us that Pakistan needs to be pressured to end its support to the Taliban.

"But the real problem has not changed: Pakistani support for the Taliban insurgency. Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI, has been providing the Taliban with safe haven and sanctuary in Pakistan for over a decade. The ISI participates directly in planning Taliban operations and target selection against Nato and Afghan targets. It helps arm and fund the Taliban and assists its fundraising efforts in the Gulf states".

Riedel concludes with a recommendation that the withdrawal from Afghanistan should be event driven and not time driven; that Obama should revisit his timeline and endgame. In addition, he thinks that India should step up and assist Afghanistan more than it does and that real pressure needs to be applied to Pakistan to stop their support of the Afghan Taliban. Read his article in "Revisit Afghanistan's End Game Plan", Brookings, December 15, 2014.