The Scouting Report: Expand the Agenda in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Transcript

12:31 John Ward Anderson:
Since I’m the moderator, I’m giving myself the first question. Vanda, you recently wrote that the situation in Afghanistan was “dire,” that Washington was in a “frantic scramble to come up with a new strategy,” but that the “options being batted around have a slim chance to fundamentally reverse the worsening trends.” And you specifically criticized the concept of surging allied forces to improve security, similar to the surge of troops in Iraq. But don’t all signs point to this as the likely choice President-elect Obama is going to make? Def. Sec. Gates is already planning on adding 20,000 more US troops to Afghanistan by next spring. Are we heading in the wrong direction?

12:32 Vanda Felbab-Brown:
John, thanks for a great question. An improvement in security in Afghanistan is critical. An increase in troop levels, including US and NATO troop levels, is an indispensible component of a strategy to improve security. However, the question remains whether the United States and NATO will be capable of surging at levels necessary to improve the security situation substantially and have it remain that way. Consequently, it is equally important to continue increasing the Afghan National Army that ultimately needs to have the responsibility for the security of its country. Moreover, it is important to imbed the military component of the strategy within a renewed political framework in Afghanistan; otherwise any security gains may prove short-lived.

View Full Transcript »