U.S. Must Adopt Political Strategy In Afghanistan, Says AEI Expert

By Meagan Wiseley – University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

In a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee Thursday, Dr. Frederick W. Kagan, a Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, called on the Obama administration to develop a political strategy in Afghanistan as an accompaniment to General Stanley McChrystals request for additional troops and a counterinsurgency campaign.

“We need to know what the administration’s political strategy in this crisis is going to be. Of course it’s not in General McChrystals plan, because it’s not his remit to develop a political strategy,” Kagan said.

“In order to conduct an effective counterinsurgency campaign you have to address the problems of the illegitimacy of the government that fuel insurgency…if the government was seen as legitimate you wouldn’t have an insurgency,” explained Kagan.

Gen. McChrystal’s assessment on the war in Afghanistan called for a “surge” of approximately 40,000 troops, and said protecting the Afghan populations is its highest priority. His assessment also included the key element of partnering with the National Afghan Security Forces (NASF). The assessment concluded that a partnership with the NASF would therefore hold the Afghan government more accountable.

J Alexander Thier, Director for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the United States Institute of Peace said, “I believe apart from the troops, we need to focus much more intensively on this effort to create government accountability and capacity particularly at the sub-national level.”

“Gen. McChrystal has done his homework…what we need to see is the homework for the rest of the effort, which is a political strategy to go along with this,” Kagan added.