Barack Obama had said in his campaign speech: “As President, I will make the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban the top priority that it should be. This is a war that we have to win.”
However, Obama could not keep his ambitious promise of winding up the military mission in Afghanistan, and now the Donald Trump administration is grappling with how to move forward in what has become America’s longest war.
Trump had reportedly told Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on a phone call in December that he would consider increasing the US troops in Afghanistan. At the same time, Trump has promised to end “nation building” and focus on domestic issues.
Despite investing huge money in Afghanistan and paying a huge price in terms of blood over the past 16 years, the US has been unable to stabilise the country.
The US has hitherto spent over $850 billion on the Afghanistan war, half of US construction aid going into building, equipping and training Afghan forces, but it has not borne the desired results.
The country is far from secure. The barbaric bombings near Parliament in Kabul and in Kandahar city on January 10 this year highlight the poor state of security in Afghanistan. Nearly 100 people were killed, including five diplomats from the UAE, the deputy governor, security officials and civilians while Kandahar governor and UAE ambassador were wounded among several others.
The territory under government control has come down from 72% in November 2015 to 63.4% in August 2016.
Afghan Taliban courts still adjudicate the local disputes, and resultantly men and women are executed publicly as per their rulings. The Afghan economy is in a shambles. Resurgent Taliban forces are gaining ground in the countryside. Despite an international investment of several billion dollars in counter-narcotics initiatives, the opium trade remains a pillar of the economy and a key source of revenue for the insurgency.
The US armed forces took on the Taliban in 2001 as the group had provided a safe haven for Al Qaeda, which was based there when it planned the WTC attacks.
The administration’s current strategy commits the US to keeping roughly 8,400 troops in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future. The goal has been to persuade the Taliban to the negotiating table by beating them on the battlefield, a prospect that now seems remote.
Afghan forces endured over 18,500 casualties last year, according to figures from the Afghan government. Gen Joseph Dunford, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, and Gen John Nicholson, the commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, had described the enduring conflict as a “stalemate” last September.
