nangyale
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Today I came across a good article by former Indian ambassador M K Bhadrakumar. The following are excerpts from it.
When it was made, finally, on Tuesday at the Rose Garden on the White House lawns in Washington DC, it couldn't have had any real surprise left in it -- President Barack Obama's announcement on how he is bringing 'America's longest war to a responsible end.'
The US-led war in Afghanistan has been grinding to a halt for quite some time already.
Yet, Obama sprang a surprise, a big surprise. He notionally gave in to the Pentagon's demand that an absolutely irreducible minimum of 10,000 US troops should remain in Afghanistan beyond this year. He chalked up a figure of 9,800.
But then he added the caveat that this number would come down by half in a year's time by end-2015 and the remaining troops shall thenceforth be confined to two locations -- Kabul and Bagram -- and, furthermore, that there shall be a complete drawdown by end-2016.
This is vintage Obama. Call it by any other name, but Obama has in reality decided to exercise the 'zero option' to be implemented through the next 30-month period.
Without even acknowledging it, he neatly de-linked it from the signing of the US-Afghan Bilateral Security Agreement (which is now a certainty as soon as the next Afghan president takes over in July.)
'The bottom line is it's time to turn the page on more than a decade in which so much of our foreign policy was focused on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,' Obama said. He is redeeming an important election pledge that he'd bring the warriors home...........
Obama rationalised his decision primarily in terms of the US' priorities -- the war needed to be brought to an end -- having lasted 'longer than many Americans expected.' Period.
......................................
Plainly put, Obama has come to the conclusion that no good US national security interest has been served by the US' extended stay in Afghanistan and it is high time to extricate the troops.......................
A senior US official who annotated Obama's decision in a media briefing claimed that the primary objective of the war has been achieved, namely, to vanquish the Al Qaeda leadership ensconced in Afghanistan.
The US will continue the hunt for Al Qaeda, but the theater has shifted from the so-called AfPak region -- to Yemen, Syria, Libya and so on.
In sum, it is important to understand at this point that the Taliban have never really been the US' 'enemy' in Afghanistan and the decision to pull out all troops returns the conflict to its status of civil war.
He never once mentioned the Taliban.
......................
Of course, Pakistan's importance still remains. Obama underscored that the new shift in the US' counterterrorism strategy involves building up the capacity of the regional States to shoulder the burden and working with them without having American 'boots on the ground.'
But the US drone attacks on Pakistan have become a thing of the past. The withdrawal of troops also eliminates NATO's dependence on the transit routes via Karachi Port.
A paradigm shift
All this taken into consideration, the factors that led to the groundswell of 'anti-Americanism in Pakistani society could gradually begin to dissipate and, in turn, the US and Pakistan are in a better position than in very many years to turn a new page in their relations......................
I hope all the Indian nay sayers, day dreamers and birdie talkers can read this and understand that the US really is leaving Afghanistan. No amount of wishful thinking can turn the clock backwards or change American policy.
The full version can be found here.
What the US withdrawal from Afghanistan means - Rediff.com India News
When it was made, finally, on Tuesday at the Rose Garden on the White House lawns in Washington DC, it couldn't have had any real surprise left in it -- President Barack Obama's announcement on how he is bringing 'America's longest war to a responsible end.'
The US-led war in Afghanistan has been grinding to a halt for quite some time already.
Yet, Obama sprang a surprise, a big surprise. He notionally gave in to the Pentagon's demand that an absolutely irreducible minimum of 10,000 US troops should remain in Afghanistan beyond this year. He chalked up a figure of 9,800.
But then he added the caveat that this number would come down by half in a year's time by end-2015 and the remaining troops shall thenceforth be confined to two locations -- Kabul and Bagram -- and, furthermore, that there shall be a complete drawdown by end-2016.
This is vintage Obama. Call it by any other name, but Obama has in reality decided to exercise the 'zero option' to be implemented through the next 30-month period.
Without even acknowledging it, he neatly de-linked it from the signing of the US-Afghan Bilateral Security Agreement (which is now a certainty as soon as the next Afghan president takes over in July.)
'The bottom line is it's time to turn the page on more than a decade in which so much of our foreign policy was focused on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,' Obama said. He is redeeming an important election pledge that he'd bring the warriors home...........
Obama rationalised his decision primarily in terms of the US' priorities -- the war needed to be brought to an end -- having lasted 'longer than many Americans expected.' Period.
......................................
Plainly put, Obama has come to the conclusion that no good US national security interest has been served by the US' extended stay in Afghanistan and it is high time to extricate the troops.......................
A senior US official who annotated Obama's decision in a media briefing claimed that the primary objective of the war has been achieved, namely, to vanquish the Al Qaeda leadership ensconced in Afghanistan.
The US will continue the hunt for Al Qaeda, but the theater has shifted from the so-called AfPak region -- to Yemen, Syria, Libya and so on.
In sum, it is important to understand at this point that the Taliban have never really been the US' 'enemy' in Afghanistan and the decision to pull out all troops returns the conflict to its status of civil war.
He never once mentioned the Taliban.
......................
Of course, Pakistan's importance still remains. Obama underscored that the new shift in the US' counterterrorism strategy involves building up the capacity of the regional States to shoulder the burden and working with them without having American 'boots on the ground.'
But the US drone attacks on Pakistan have become a thing of the past. The withdrawal of troops also eliminates NATO's dependence on the transit routes via Karachi Port.
A paradigm shift
All this taken into consideration, the factors that led to the groundswell of 'anti-Americanism in Pakistani society could gradually begin to dissipate and, in turn, the US and Pakistan are in a better position than in very many years to turn a new page in their relations......................
I hope all the Indian nay sayers, day dreamers and birdie talkers can read this and understand that the US really is leaving Afghanistan. No amount of wishful thinking can turn the clock backwards or change American policy.
The full version can be found here.
What the US withdrawal from Afghanistan means - Rediff.com India News