American military commanders with the NATO mission in Afghanistan told President Obama’s chief envoy to the region this weekend that they did not have enough troops to do their job, pushed past their limit by Taliban rebels who operate across borders.
The commanders emphasized problems in southern Afghanistan, where Taliban insurgents continue to bombard towns and villages with rockets despite a new influx of American troops, and in eastern Afghanistan, where the father-and-son-led Haqqani network of militants has become the main source of attacks against American troops and their Afghan allies.
The possibility that more troops will be needed in Afghanistan presents the Obama administration with another problem in dealing with a nearly eight-year war that has lost popularity at home, compounded by new questions over the credibility of the Afghan government, which has just held an as-yet inconclusive presidential election beset by complaints of fraud.
Truly, I’m not sure what our objective is there anymore.
As it has been since the initial invasion in the wake of 9/11/2001: prevent the use of Afganistan as a home base for world-wide terrorism by directly assisting native Afgani efforts to eliminate Taliban tyranny and filling the vacuum with a national government that is based on tribal and regional needs and not religious affiliations. Losing priority in American policy and effort from late 2002 until the present has certainly made that objective a more difficult one to achieve in the theater and, as you point out with your statement, for the citizens of the United States and its Allies in the war to identify.