Home: Authors: Murad Khan

Last week, in a speech at West point, President Obama announced his revised strategy towards Afghanistan committing, 30,000 additional troops. The new strategy does not give an exact timeframe for transition of responsibilities from allied troops to Afghan security forces, and places deep dependence on corrupt Afghan government, and this makes its implementation more challenging. To succeed in Afghanistan the US should better account for the realities on ground and the complexities of the local culture.

Last month, US military issued a hit list of suspected drug kingpins as part of the NATO’s new strategy to fight drug dealers who provide finances to Taliban. The new policy will draw opposition from Afghan officials and trigger a severe backlash of influential drugs mafia against foreign troops. NATO and the United States must devise a comprehensive strategy that deals with drugs issue in Afghanistan.

For any counter insurgency operation, public support is an important and fundamental element. Without the public on board insurgents cannot be defeated. Pursuance of existing contradictory strategies, Pakistan and United States has lost crucial public support in ongoing global war on terror in the region.(Pakistan and Afghanistan)