NEW YORK (SW): The New York Times’s Editorial Board has blamed Pakistan for much of the war and insecurity in Afghanistan nearly 15 years after the 9/11.
In the latest editorial article, the daily has noted that despite $33 billion in American aid and repeated attempts to reset relations on a more constructive course, Pakistan remains a duplicitous and dangerous partner for the United States and Afghanistan.
The daily has noted that in coming weeks, Gen. John Nicholson Jr., the new American commander in Afghanistan, will present his assessment of the war. It’s likely to be bleak and may question the wisdom of President Obama’s goal of cutting the American force of 10,000 troops to 5,500 by the end of the year.
The truth is, regardless of troop levels, the only hope for long-term peace is negotiations with some factions of the Taliban. The key to that is Pakistan, it has added.
According to the NYT, under American pressure, the Pakistan Army recently waged a military campaign against the Taliban in the ungoverned border region. But the Haqqanis still operate in relative safety in Pakistan. Some experts say the army has helped engineer the integration of the Haqqanis into the Taliban leadership.
Pakistan’s double game has long frustrated American officials, and it has grown worse. There are now efforts in Washington to exert more pressure on the Pakistan Army.
About Afghanistan, the NYT has underlined that President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has been a more reliable leader than his predecessor, Hamid Karzai. But his unity government is crippled by political infighting, endemic corruption, a budget crunch and an unsustainable troop casualty rate. That grim reality presents difficult choices for President Obama, who would decide whether to keep the current troop strength and possibly to change the military’s role to fight the Taliban more directly.
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