An unstable Afghanistan in which extremists and narco-traffickers have a safe haven may well be another Bush legacy, says International Herald Tribute in an editorial on Friday. Excerpts:
Five years after President George W. Bush largely dropped the military operation against the Afghan-based Taleban and Al-Qaeda so he could invade Iraq, American and NATO troops are needed as much as ever in Afghanistan to hold back a resurgence of those forces. Yet Washington and its European allies still do not have an effective and comprehensive strategy to combat the threat.
Despite the presence of more than 50,000 NATO troops — most of them American — and some 140,000 Afghan troops and police, the Taleban and Al-Qaeda have gotten stronger over the past two years. And Afghan forces are far from being able to defend the country on their own. Meanwhile, NATO allies must beef up their forces in Afghanistan — as Britain has promised to do. Allies who put inexcusable restrictions on where and when their forces can operate must remove them. Afghanistan is scheduled to elect a new president next year, and more turmoil could result if voters are too fearful to go to the polls. An unstable Afghanistan in which extremists and narco-traffickers have a safe haven may well be another Bush legacy. His would-be successors need to explain how they would deal with it.
