I know that I shouldn’t try to write something serious this early in the a.m., but I’m looking at headlines about President Obama’s trip to India. I’ve also been reading Bob Woodward’s book, Obama’s Wars, an account of the Obama administrations struggles over Afghanistan war policy. Highly recommended (and it comes in a Kindle edition, which can be read on your iPhone, iPad, or computer, as well as a Kindle).
Woodward describes several internal debates as Obama was reviewing the policy towards Afghanistan and the strategy that his administration would pursue.
One thing made very clear is that while American’s think of the war in Afghanistan as a discrete foreign policy issue, it is inextricably tied to the Pakistan-India conflict. In one view, Paskistan was worried about an eventual American withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Their paranoid mind-set was, in part, understandable. If America moved out again, India and Iran would fill the power vacuum inside Afghanistan. And most of all, Pakistan feared India, an avowed enemyu for more than 60 years. As a growing economic and military powerhouse, India had numerous intelligence programs inside Afghanistan to spread its influence there, Pakistan worried more about being encircled by India than being undermined by extremists inside its borders.
But while an American withdrawal was feared, Pakistan has no interest in the possibility of an American success in creating a unified Afghan government, because they fear it would by aligned with Pakistan’s enemy, India. Hence the periodic reports we hear that Pakistan is providing aid to certain of the Afghan Taliban.
It’s just a hornets nest of complex, geo-political issues, very different from the simplistic descriptions of the Afghanistan war fed to the American people.
A quick Google search turned up a number of articles.
The real problem in the Afghan war is India, Pakistan and Kashmir, Washington Post.
India’s Options in Afghanistan, iNews.com
Obama is not likely to push India hard on Pakistan, New York Times
Anyway, Woodward’s book is an accessible way to get a feel for the nuances. As I said before, it’s highly recommended.
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Thanks for this article, Ian. You direct readers to the many reasons why Afghanistan is historically known as the “graveyard of civilizations.”
I think it is clear that the complicated problems in and around that country simply cannot be solved by uniformed American troops on the ground.
Hope that our leaders understand that there are better ways to bring stability to the region which take into account reality.
You mentioned reading on Kindle. I’d like to put in a good word for Nook. Better page background. More available books. Any problem and they’ll fix it right at any B&N store (Kindle’s can only be opened at the factory), and when you go wi-fi in a B&N store on the Nook, you stand a good chance of getting a free drink or snack!