By Cliff Montgomery – Apr. 6th, 2009
American intelligence predicts that Afghanistan’s level of violence will climb through 2009, despite PresidentBarack Obama’s new plan for fighting the Taliban and providing additional aid to the current Afghangovernment, said a leading intelligence official in late March.
Deposed Taliban forces over the last three years have staged a comeback in the country, bringing with them asteady increase in violence.
President Obama on March 27th called the situation “increasingly perilous.” U.S. and allied forces ousted theTaliban from control of Afghanistan over seven years ago.
Taliban forces have once again taken control in eastern and southern Afghanistan by providing some basicsecurity and rather crude government services. For many living in the area this probably is an improvementfrom the current “government” of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, which is so crooked The New York Timeshas proclaimed its corruption to be, “by many estimates…among the worst in the world.”
And of course the Taliban also rules these areas with a generous dose of violence to bully the population, theintelligence official told The Associated Press (AP). Insufficient numbers of American, Afghan or NATO forceshave left a power vacuum in these regions, allowing the Taliban to re-establish control, states U.S. intelligence.
The official discussed these matters with AP on the agreement “that his name not be used, [and] to morefreely discuss the intelligence…used to shape the newly announced strategy for Pakistan and Afghanistan,”states AP.
Obama already has approved adding 17,000 American troops to U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The presidentalso has announced his goal of sending more American soldiers to serve as trainers for Afghan forces, and aplan to increase aid to Pakistani civilians.
It’s all part of an ambitious multi-year project intended to bring a greater stability to Afghanistan, while makingits notorious border region with Pakistan an increasingly harsh center of operations for al-Qaeda.
The Obama Administration wants the Pakistani government to cease both its passive and active support forTaliban forces, the intelligence official told AP.
The Taliban employs the lawless tribal region of Pakistan’s western frontier as a military base of operations,where soldiers are trained and attacks are launched into Afghanistan.
The official added that U.S. intelligence previously shared with Pakistan has found its way into the hands ofTaliban members.
Pakistan’s western frontier border with Afghanistan effectively became the central base of operations for bothal-Qaeda and the Taliban after the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.
The intelligence official also told AP that the Obama Administration wants the Pakistani government to step upits efforts to combat al-Qaeda and Taliban elements currently stationed in the country’s western border area.
Good luck with that.
