The announcement of the death of Taliban founder and leader Mullah Mohammad Omar (some two years after it occurred) has attracted attention to Afghanistan’s insurgency once again. And it’s about time. That insurgency has regained strength and capability in many areas of Afghanistan, including critical provinces close to the capital, as American and coalition forces have drawn down.
Worse still, the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS) has established itself firmly in Afghanistan, a country in which it had virtually no presence 18 months ago. Afghan National Security Forces are continuing to fight hard and take heavy casualties, but they have not been able to retain the gains made by the Afghan surge strategy President Obama implemented in 2009, largely because the US has collapsed its footprint and stopped providing them the kind of assistance they require in accord with the president’s commitment to a withdrawal timeline. Afghanistan is no longer on a path toward stability and security. It is, rather, developing the conditions for a return of Islamist terrorists with global ambitions.
Kandahar, Afghanistan – November 2010: ISAF Forces unload a Chinook helicopter in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
1.) Will you, as a candidate, call on President Obama to halt the reduction of American forces in Afghanistan?
President Obama has stated and reiterated his intention to withdraw all American combat forces from Afghanistan by the end of his second term. If he follows through on this commitment, the next president will find his or her options severely constrained. It is politically difficult, however, to seem to be calling for endless deployments of troops to a war that is already the longest that the US has ever fought. The willingness of a candidate to insist that this president retain critical options for his successor is a measure of that candidate’s seriousness about American national security.
2.) Would you, as president, commit to doing what is necessary to prevent Afghanistan from becoming once again a safe haven from which terrorists can plan and conduct attacks against the United States?
President Obama has repeatedly stated that his aim in Afghanistan remains preventing the re-emergence of a terrorist safe-haven there. His policies, however, are not succeeding in that objective. Stopping the return of al Qaeda or the establishment of ISIS in Afghanistan is either a core American national security requirement or not. If you think it isn’t, please explain why. If you think it is, then are you willing to make the effort necessary to succeed?
3.) Do you think it is important for the US to help Afghan women protect the gains they have made over the past 14 years and prevent a return to Taliban-style oppression?
American discussions about Afghan policy generally focus on the security aspects of the situation. But the humanitarian considerations also deserve a hearing. The Taliban had established a brutal and repressive regime that particularly targeted Afghan women and girls—banning them from schools, requiring them to stay at home or to go outside the home only fully covered and accompanied by male relatives, and applying punishments ranging from throwing acid on girls’ faces to stoning women to death. Millions of Afghan girls are now in school thanks to the efforts of the US, its NATO and international partners, the international community, and the Afghan government. Women can walk about freely in many (but by no means all) parts of Afghanistan, engage in commerce, and live without fear of horrific punishments. Do you think that defending human rights and the rights of women is an appropriate objective of American foreign policy in Afghanistan?
4.) Would you request funding from Congress to support the Afghan National Security Forces at a size and capability-level necessary to secure their country from the Taliban, al Qaeda, ISIS, and their affiliates?
Afghanistan remains a desperately poor country with a partially-dysfunctional economy that is rife with corruption. There is little prospect that it will be able to afford security forces adequate to prevent the return of the Taliban, al Qaeda, or the expansion of ISIS any time soon. The Obama administration has shown great reluctance in committing to providing the funds necessary to sustain the Afghan security forces at an adequate level for the long term. Are you willing to make such a commitment?
5.) Would you impose firm timelines or restrictions on the nature, extent, and duration of US assistance to Afghanistan that are not based on conditions on the ground?
Criticizing the Obama administration’s fixation with arbitrary timelines is easy. The withdrawal of forces from Iraq and Afghanistan on a date-driven rather than conditions-driven basis is one of the principal reasons for the collapse of security in Iraq and its deterioration in Afghanistan. It is true, however, that the US risks creating a long-term dependence on the presence of its own combat forces if it takes too much of the burden of securing Afghanistan on itself for too long. How would you balance the requirement to provide enough support of the right kind to ensure that our national security interests are protected with the need to encourage the Afghans to develop their own indigenous abilities to keep terrorists out of their country over time?
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