Getting the (Afghanistan) transition right

An Afghan soldier stands guard outside of an airport after a gunfire incident in Kabul last week.


Getting the transition right
John F. Kerry
May 1, 2011

IN TWO months, the Obama administration will announce critical choices about the next phase of its Afghanistan strategy: how to begin drawing down US forces so Afghans can assume greater responsibility for their own country. We know the transition will take time, and many believe it won’t be finished by 2014, the date President Hamid Karzai says he wants full control of his country.

Deciding the steps ahead ultimately is a decision only President Obama can make. But making the right recommendations — informed by a thorough debate — is our collective responsibility, and particularly the responsibility of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Forty years ago last month, I testified in front of the committee about a war that had to end. Today I chair that committee, and this week I’m launching another series of comprehensive hearings to examine a war the president has already decided will end. The goal is to study every question and ultimately articulate a policy of how that war should end in a way that makes America stronger.

The transfer of responsibility to the Afghans offers both hope and challenge. The hope is that we can help bring stability and security to Afghanistan and bring our men and women in uniform home safely. The challenge is that the transition can be thrown off course by increased violence from the insurgents and a lack of resolve from our partners in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere.

Now it is not enough to simply lay out our goals — to dismantle and destroy Al Qaeda and avoid destabilizing Pakistan. We need to demonstrate what type of Afghanistan we plan to leave in our wake so that we may actually achieve these objectives. Do we need to build a democratic Afghanistan that can secure its borders and deliver services to its citizens? Or is it enough to create an Afghan state — undemocratic, corrupt, or otherwise — that will still deny sanctuary to extremist groups that could harm the United States and its allies?




unhappycamper comment: I would be nice to have someone actually state our goals for continuing the United States' occupation of Afghanistan. Afghanistan has been the definition of 'moving goalposts' as well as a continuing drain on our economic system. It's time we declare victory and bring our troops home.

It's just that simple.

liked Obama to just throw in the towel and pull out right when he was elected. I don't think we change their culture anyway, anyhow. It's just a matter of time. We leave and it all comes back. This year or 20 years from now. We might as well have gotten it over right away.

After the choppers took us off Vietnam, what happened? The country is actually in as good a shape as any other in the area.

So what did those nearly 60,000 Americans die for? So Wranglers could be sewed there? Couldn't we have just asked them nicely?

they mean a compliant puppet government that can keep at least the pipeline route peaceful.