‘Stable Afghanistan makes for a safer world’

The Los Angeles Times believes America’s job in Afghanistan is not done yet. Says its editorial: “After 13 years of war, more than 2,300 dead US troops and the replacement of the Taliban regime with an elected government, the United States declared a formal end to its combat mission in Afghanistan. That’s an important symbolic marker, but no one should interpret the declaration as the end of anything. Some 10,800 US troops remain behind to train and support the still-young Afghan military. Surviving Taliban forces — which operate with relative impunity from the lawless border region of Pakistan — have been mounting fresh attacks, making it clear that the fighting will continue. The best that can be hoped for is that the Afghans take over the job of defending themselves and their government, allowing the US presence to diminish.

“Lesson learned, we hope. Still, the United States has a responsibility to continue helping Afghanistan move to a more independent and self-sustaining government. That’s not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because it is in the US national interest. As the world was reminded in 2001, instability creates haven for terrorists. A stable Afghanistan makes for a safer world.”

The US News & Observer backs US president Barack Obama’s decision to the hilt. “President Obama can do no right as far as some political opponents are concerned. It doesn’t matter whether he’s helping to bring the nation back from the economic brink, saving the automobile industry along the way, having the courage to take on health care reform or improving America’s standing in the world. Or even, in noting with appropriate restraint the end of America’s war in Afghanistan.” The most important thing, it believes, was exactly what the president said: “Compared to the nearly 180,000 American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan when I took office, we now have fewer than 15,000 in those countries. Some 90 per cent of our troops are home.”

“Amen.”

The New York Times too believes that the rearview mirror viewpoint is at best partial view of the Afghan situation. Commenting on the stance of Afghan president Ashraf Gani on the United Nations Development Fund’s monitoring, its editorial looks beyond the present. “As tempting as it is to think of the Afghan war as receding in the rearview mirror, the United States remains deeply embroiled in the conflict. President Obama celebrated the nominal end of America’s combat mission last month, vowing, with unfounded optimism, that the country was ‘not going to be a source of terrorist attacks again’. However, his administration opted to retain significant military operations in Afghanistan, where roughly 10,600 troops continue to serve. Washington has also committed to continue spending billions of dollars to keep Afghanistan’s fledgling security forces afloat.”

The Desert Sun, a Texan newspaper, says Americans shouldn’t act like the war is over. “The reality is that the war is not over,” says its editorial. “Though Al Qaida, the architects of the 9/11 attacks and other terrorist plots, has been partly dismantled and the Taliban is a shadow of its former self, extremism still has a foothold in the war-torn nation.”