Afghan war: A difficult decision

General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, recently submitted an application to the White House requesting at least 40,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, according to U.S media reports. Eight years after the U.S. launched the Afghan War, the Obama Administration's new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan faces the dilemma of whether to dispatch more troops to the region.

Announcing his new strategy on March 27 2009, President Obama said, "We have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future." This reflects new ideas such as "We must recognize the fundamental link between the future of Afghanistan and that of Pakistan"; "America can no longer deny resources to Afghanistan because of the war in Iraq"; and "A campaign against extremism will not succeed with bullets or bombs alone." However, data from the last six months indicate that this strategy has not produced instant results. On the contrary, the situation in Afghanistan is becoming more complicated and grim.

In fact, after eight years of war, the U.S. is increasingly aware of the intrinsic complexity of the Afghan issue. Recently, McChrystal publicly questioned the chance of success of the new strategy. He explained that if 2 out of 10 Taliban members were killed in Afghanistan, the number is likely to increase to 20, because relatives of the two members killed gather to take revenge. Having understood the complexity of the Afghan issue, McChrystal believes that the U.S. position toward the Afghan issue should be "humility". The change in the attitude of this U.S. military official is thought-provoking.

With the U.S. seeking to emerge from economic recession, U.S. citizens are anxious about the ceaseless and protracted Afghan War and anti-war sentiment is growing due to a difficult military offensive, more injuries, shaken military morale and other information related to the war in Afghanistan. U.S. media discussion on topics such as "Afghanistan is the tomb of the empire" and "the U.S. is bogged down in Afghanistan", and criticism from the Republican Party are increasing. As evidence relating to presidential election rigging in Afghanistan continues to emerge, both the legitimacy of the future Afghan government and the rationality of the cooperation between U.S. and Afghan governments have already been questioned. Requests from McChrystal and other military officials for more troops in Afghanistan have brought internal conflict between the U.S. government and the military to the surface. In essence, this conflict is a concentrated reflection of the intense difference in stance among the U.S. public on the Afghan issue.

The Afghan issue has become a serious political test for the current U.S. government. With requests from military officials for more troops in Afghanistan and a public support rate below one third for the dispatch of more troops, the U.S. government is facing a difficult decision.

By People's Daily Online