The United States is planning to surge an estimated 30,000 additional troops into Afghanistan in an attempt to beat back the resurgent Taliban. The Economist details the plan to utilize the troops: secure the Ring Road, the vital roadway the links the major cities throughout the country; provide security for the 40-odd districts where the Taliban is in danger of taking control; and create the Afghan version of the Iraqi Awakening–the local militias paid to stamp out al Qaeda in Iraq. Questions remain on whether NATO will be fully on board with the new strategy. Already the Canadians, who control the volatile southern province of Kandahar, have expressed reservations about the plan.
There has been no agreement on this issue between the multitude of NATO countries operating in the south. Because of this disagreement, the United States “will proceed with a pilot program in eastern Afghanistan.” One of the reasons the “surge” in Iraq worked was because the United States was able to execute a comprehensive counterinsurgency plan across the board. In Afghanistan, the United States will butt heads with the various NATO countries, all of whom have widely differing views on how to conduct military operations, reconstruction, and counterinsurgency. The challenge for the U.S. military and civilian leadership will be to get the NATO countries to buy into the change in strategy in Afghanistan.
