Afghanistan report warns of 'failed state'
A panel of U.S. diplomatic and military experts says more troops and better coordination are needed to secure the country in the face of a resurgent Taliban.
WASHINGTON — The international effort to stabilize Afghanistan is faltering and urgently needs thousands of additional U.S. and coalition troops, an influential group of American diplomatic and military experts concluded in a report issued Wednesday.
The independent study finds that the Taliban, which two years ago was largely viewed as a defeated movement, has been able to infiltrate and control sizable parts of southern and southeastern Afghanistan, leading to widespread disillusionment among Afghans with the mission.
"The prospect of again losing significant parts of Afghanistan to the forces of Islamic extremists has moved from the improbable to the possible," the study says, warning that Afghanistan could revert to a "failed state."
The report is critical of nearly every governmental and international organization involved in Afghanistan, including the Bush administration, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, calling their efforts inadequate, poorly coordinated and occasionally self-defeating.
Although many of the criticisms have been made before, the new study is spearheaded by some of the same experts and organizations involved in the Iraq Study Group, the influential panel whose report a year ago put intense pressure on the Bush administration to change course in Iraq.
The co-chairmen of the group are former NATO commander and retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones, and Thomas R. Pickering, a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. The two men have significant bipartisan standing in U.S. foreign policy circles, which could give the study a wider and more authoritative reach than other assessments.
Jones and Pickering are scheduled to testify on Afghanistan before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today.
The Afghanistan Study Group's criticisms of the Bush administration focus on the military mission. It welcomes the Pentagon's recent decision to send an additional 3,200 Marines, increasing the U.S. presence to about 28,000 troops. But it says the Pentagon should send additional troops as soon as they are freed from duty in Iraq.
"Afghanistan is larger in size and population than Iraq but has far fewer national and foreign troops," the report says.
The study calls for a change in the way the U.S. funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- U.S. Official Says Taliban Is on the Rise Mar 01, 2006
- Cleric Who Fought for Taliban Is Arrested Nov 19, 2001
- Opposition Leader Masoud Is Mourned Sep 17, 2001
