Small Steps to Help Afghanistan's Future

Three writers have collaborated on an opinion column posted in The Washington Post providing some suggestions for the way forward in Afghanistan. Vanda Felbab-Brown, Ronald Neumann (former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan), and David Sedney (former Deputy U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan) believe that success is within reach but only if ". . . we capitalize with small investments that can enable significant payoffs" and adopt some minor policy changes. A major push is needed to prod our allies to provide 2,000 additional personnel to augment the U.S. contingent to deploy on Resolute Support (post Dec 2014 mission). A slight modification of the timetable for the withdrawal of troops could provide additional space and time for our European allies to fully commit to the long-haul. Critical support to the Afghan National Security Forces is needed in the area of air support, intelligence, and institutional development. Major mistakes in contracting by the United States have led to a capability gap in the Afghan Air Force; the U.S. Air Force should be provided more time to get it right. Read more in "The small steps to save our gains in Afghanistan".