Josh Rogin reports for CQ (subscribers only):
President Obama’s soon-to-be-released Afghanistan strategy places too much emphasis on Pakistan, endangering the chances that the plan will succeed, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Friday. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said in an interview that the administration’s forthcoming policy will link progress in Afghanistan to the Pakistani government’s willingness to deal with extremist groups within its own borders. This creates an unwise dependence on Pakistan to help the United States achieve its objectives in the region, he said. “I don’t want to say that Afghanistan’s future is tied to Pakistan’s dealing with it effectively,” said Levin, “We can make progress in Afghanistan, even if Pakistan doesn’t have the will to do what’s in their self-interest and what they need to do, which is deal with the extreme groups in their midst.” Following a Thursday lunch with Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Obama’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Gen. David Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, Levin also concluded that the new strategy also does not provide for a sufficient build-up of Afghan security forces.
Levin is in direct violation of the Klein Doctrine, but his point echoes the calls in this magazine to address Afghanistan and Pakistan independently, so as to prevent a failure on one front from compromising U.S. efforts on the other:
The administration cannot afford to shape its policy toward Pakistan based simply upon the effects it hopes to achieve in Afghanistan; it must instead tackle Pakistan qua Pakistan, even as it pursues a comprehensive strategy for its neighbor. “AfPak” thinking will be wrongheaded about both countries.
