William Goodfellow, US News and World Report: There's No Military Solution in Afghanistan
History offers lessons for finally ending the conflict with the Taliban.
This month marks the 15th anniversary of the start of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. Rather than ending the war before he leaves office, as he had promised, President Barack Obama is escalating America's involvement in the war.
The Pentagon has deployed special operations troops to support the Afghan army and, for the first time since 2006, has sent B-52 bombers back to Afghanistan to bomb Taliban insurgents. While the bombing has temporarily slowed the Taliban offensive in Helmand province, strategic bombing is unlikely to defeat a resilient guerrilla force that is steadily gaining ground on an Afghan government weakened by corruption and infighting.
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WNU Editor: This is just an acknowledgement that the war is lost, and that the time is now to find a mechanism that would incorporate the Taliban to run the country. Unfortunately .... I do not think this proposal would not work. Afghanistan is a country with multi-ethnic and sectarian groups .... who have a long and bloody history with the Taliban. They would never accept the Taliban coming back to power, and the Taliban have shown no history in the past to share power with them. Bottom line .... if the Taliban do come back to power .... it would probably produce a refugee crisis that would pale in comparison to what is happening in the Middle East today. But it is also true that at the moment there is no military solution to the war .... and that a new strategy must be found.
