Secret Report Urges New Afghan Plan

Barack Obama aux côtés du président afghan Hamid Karzaï, à Kaboul. Au deuxième jour de sa visite en Afghanistan, le candidat démocrate à la Maison blanche a qualifié la situation du pays de "précaire et urgente" et a appelé de ses voeux un renforcement de "la lutte contre le terrorisme". /Photo prise le 20 juillet 2008/REUTERS/Palais présidentiel afghan

From The Politico:

The Pentagon’s top military officers are recommending to President Barack Obama that he shift U.S. strategy in Afghanistan — to focus on ensuring regional stability and eliminating Taliban and Al Qaida safe havens in Pakistan, rather than on achieving lasting democracy and a thriving Afghan economy, officials said.

The recommendations to narrow U.S. goals are contained in a classified report by the Joint Chiefs of Staff that is likely to be shown soon to Obama as part of a review of Afghanistan strategy announced by the new administration.

Obama is expected to announce soon his decision on a request for additional forces from the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. David McKiernan. Several officials said they believe the president will approve sending three additional combat brigades to Afghanistan, totaling roughly 10,000 to 12,000 troops.

Read more ....

My Comment: The conflict in Afghanistan has always been about security and denying a safe base for Al Qaeda to work from. While this strategy has been very effective for the past seven years, there is now a realization that the battlefield is shifting and a more robust strategy to confront this change is needed.

But what makes this strategy difficult to achieve .... is the realization that Pakistan is slowing imploding from its own war with its own Taliban militants. Pakistan has ignored intelligence assessments from the U.S. for the past few years on the dangers of Islamic extremists .... focusing instead on their historical enemy India by supporting Islamic extremists in Kashmir and other regions of India.

This Pakistani strategy has completely failed. It has only galvanized the Government in India to take action, and for Pakistan, it has embolden the Islamic militants to start a war against their own original Pakistani benefactors.

The key ingredient for any success against the Taliban must involve Pakistan. But Pakistan is not listening. and they will not listen to the U.S. or President Obama until the Taliban are at the gates, or when they realize that a number of their nuclear weapons are missing.