Posted on 09/01/2009 1:08:55 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The international community, with more than 100,000 troops in Afghanistan, does not have an exit strategy and will stay committed for the long term, Sweden's foreign minister said Tuesday.
"There is no time line, it is clear that no one has an exit strategy, because we have a transition strategy," Carl Bildt, whose country is currently president of the European Union, told AFP.
"It is vital that Afghans have the confidence that we will stay," he said.
The emphasis of the foreign presence was shifting, he said, from military action against Taliban-liked insurgents, to training Afghan security forces and helping build a civilian governance infrastructure.
"There has to be a move from a military-heavy presence to a civilian-heavy presence," he said.
"One of the big problems in Afghanistan in the last 30 to 40 years is that there have been too many exit strategies and not enough transition strategies," Bildt said before leaving Kabul after a two-day visit to Afghanistan.
The US and NATO commander in Afghanistan on Monday submitted a long-awaited review into the eight-year war, calling for a revised strategy to defeat the Taliban and reverse the "serious" situation in the country.
The United States and NATO have called for new thinking in Afghanistan to counter record numbers of Taliban attacks since the 2001 US-led invasion.
Bildt said the emphasis of the new strategy was on "civilian, political, economic resources" to build "rule of law, governance and anti-corruption mechanisms".
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The Taliban never sits around worrying that they are in a quagmire. They never sit around wondering, at least out loud, that they are in a no-win war.
They just do what they do, and then tomorrow they get up and do it again.
We should do likewise. Just keep punching them every time they come up for air. When they come up for air again, punch them again. Rinse and repeat.
Show me empirical evidence of ever, ever “nation building” a 7th century, religiously inspired violent people, into a 21st century democratic peaceful people?
7.5 years ago some warned that Afghanistan had historically resisted efforts to civilize and subjegate it.
We should know by now that Pakistan won’t help enough, because a large fraction of their people are sympathizers, and facilitators.
What have Afghanistan and Pakistan given to the world?
Why did it make sense to nuke Japan, but not to nuke Afghanistan?
“We should do likewise. Just keep punching them every time they come up for air. When they come up for air again, punch them again. Rinse and repeat.”
- Whether we like it or not, this is the only way forward.
Defending civilization has never been a picnic.
Best of regards from Gothenburg, Sweden. Now it’s off to work..
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