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April 8, 2011 Obama's Failed Afghan Strategy and the Return of Al-Qaeda <http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/authors/id.208/author_detail.asp> Trevor Westra Print This <javascript:%20printVersion()> E-mail This <javascript:%20emailVersion()> <javascript:void(0);> http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/images/share.png ShareThis <javascript:void(0);> Comments (0) <http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/comments.asp?id=9192> http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/imgLib/20110407_AfghanistanMap.jpg Al-Qaeda has moved back into Afghanistan, a <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704355304576215762431072584.h tml?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond> blockbuster article from the Wall Street Journal revealed this week. The report contains details of U.S. airstrikes in September against what military officials are now calling an "al-Qaeda training camp" in Korengal Valley - Afghanistan's so-called Valley of Death. It is the first time in a number of years that the terrorist network is considered to have established an operating base inside the country. The implications of an al-Qaeda return to Afghanistan are a terrible development for President Obama's war plans. The existence of this camp in Kunar Province came only after large U.S. troop drawbacks from the region. The administration's military analysis at the time was simple; a heavy American troop presence was abetting Taliban recruitment in the area. Pulling out, they hoped, would eliminate the Taliban's need to maintain a fighting presence there. But developments in recent months have exposed the failed logic of this strategy. Not only did the Taliban recently seize the Waygal district in Kunar, but it appears al-Qaeda has pinned the region as defenseless and is now pushing to claim it as their newest stomping ground. This naturally brings into focus larger and more critical questions about the future of the Obama administration's strategy in Afghanistan. Though the core objective remains to deny al-Qaeda a safe haven in the country, the addition of some 50,000 troops over the last two years clearly hasn't achieved it. Instead of bolstering efforts to fortify the failed boarder with Pakistan, officials have preferred to focus more on fighting Taliban militants in the South on an issue-by-issue basis using a strategy of intervention. Despite the setbacks Gen. Patraeus <http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110315/ap_on_re_us/us_us_afghanistan> recently claimed the U.S. have handed the Taliban in these areas, the Obama-backed surge hasn't achieved the more strategically urgent need to keep terrorists from entering and seizing territory in the remote Northern regions of the country. As a result, even Pakistani militant groups have become active in Kunar Province. The WSJ report also indicates that Jaish-e-Mohammed as well as Lashkar-e-Taiba, who carried out the Mumbai attacks in 2008, have also moved operatives inside the boarder. Complicating matters further, a growing base of Chechen fighters from Central Asia are piling in. Though Obama's current military strategy is based on building a meaningful long-term political partnership with the Afghan government, this process is ultimately contingent on Afghan forces supporting military gains that he ha yet to make. If he has any hope of carrying out the additional troop withdraws his administration has promised for July, Obama ought to reconsider prioritizing the more refined goals of quelling terrorist infiltration to the country and protecting the boarder. <http://familysecuritymatters.org/> Family Security Matters Contributor Trevor Westra is a Canadian blogger whose writings on religion and modernity have been featured at the Canada Free Press, the New Media Journal and online magazine Global Politician. He writes frequently on international affairs at the blog, the Theo Log ( <http://www.theolog.ca/> www.theolog.ca) A graduate in Religous Studies from Canada's Laurentian University, he has lectured on Indian religious traditions in Canada at the University of Sudbury and specializes in the religions of South Asia. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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