by James Mills
The once “forgotten war” is foremost in many minds this week, as footage of American hostage Private Bowe Bergdahl was released online and the death toll of British servicemen continued to rise.
At present, all three major political parties in Britain support the military action in Afghanistan. According to recent Guardian ICM polls, public support is also holding firm. However, an end to the conflict is nowhere in sight, even though countries such as Australia have declared they will withdraw from Afghanistan in three to four years.
The current military operation, Panther’s Claw, has been extremely costly, claiming the lives of 17 British soldiers. There has also been a change in the tactics deployed in Afghanistan, mirroring the “surge” strategy of the Iraq War.
Some 17,000 coalition troops are currently in the field in Afghanistan. Ironically, this is the number of troops Britain lost there in one military campaign alone in the 19th century. However, while driving the Taliban from a particular area has never been exceptionally difficult for coalition forces, harnessing support for the Afghan government has proved elusive. If the Taliban are to be removed from the country for good, the cornerstone of any solution must involve a government able take over in the power vacuum left by military forces.
Barack Obama has come in for criticism in the United States for the lack of an “exit strategy” for the Afghan conflict and the escalation of the campaign. Some former Obama loyalists have claimed he has abandoned the anti-war sentiments of his election campaign. The escalation in US troop numbers have led some commentators to suggest that Mr Obama wants the Afghan war to be regarded as a defining event of his presidency.
Relations between the US President and his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai , have become increasingly strained. The Obama administration has never shied away from expressing its dislike for the Karzai government, describing it as “corrupt” and “inefficient”. Now heightened tensions are sure to follow a recent exposé by the New York Times and human rights groups, which implicates allies of President Karzai in the death of up to 2,000 Taliban prisoners in November 2001, following the victory of the Northern Alliance.
Human rights groups, such as the US Institute of Peace in Kabul, want to see the influence of the warlords curbed and are using the focus on these new revelations and the animosity between the US and Afghan governments to bolster their arguments.
President Karzai is up for re-election next month. It appears that he has come to an arrangement with alliances of different warlords in an effort to secure his victory. The warlords are deeply unpopular among most Afghans – their power was the impetus that drove many to back the Taliban in the first place.
