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President Obama has made Afghanistan one of his top national security priorities. And the new US strategy there will likely be affected by the kind of government that results from this election. The World’s Jeb Sharp reports.
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KATY CLARK: President Obama today praised the way millions of Afghan voters took part in yesterday’s election. Mr. Obama has made Afghanistan one of his top national security priorities. He’s revamped the entire US strategy there and sent more troops to fight the Taliban. The World’s Jeb Sharp reports on why the Obama administration is closely monitoring the fallout of yesterday’s election.
JEB SHARP: President Obama reiterated his commitment to Afghanistan in brief remarks today in Washington. He called the election an important step forward and reminded Americans why US troops are fighting there.
BARACK OBAMA: This is not a challenge that we asked for. It came to our shores when al Qaeda launched the 9/11 attacks from Afghanistan. But America, our allies and partners, and above all the Afghan people share a common interest in pursuing security, opportunity, and justice. We look forward to renewing our partnership with the Afghan people as they move ahead under a new government.
SHARP: It’s not so much who ends up president in Afghanistan that matters to the United States, it’s how the Afghan people perceive the new government. Alex Thier of the US Institute of Peace says it will be a real problem if the election results are not decisive.
ALEX THIER: The danger of a contested election or indeed an outcome that is not broadly accepted by all sides is the danger that the Afghan population will not see the next government as legitimate.
SHARP: And that could turn Afghans away from their government and toward the insurgency. Thier says that would be a disaster for the United States as well.
THIER: US policy in Afghanistan is very heavily invested in the existence of an Afghan government that is supported by its people and which is increasingly seen by the Afghan people as being in favor of increasing security and justice and economic development. And so if we don’t have a government that is a reliable partner then we can’t do any of these things ourselves in Afghanistan.
SHARP: And that might well increase the political pressure for the United States to pull out of Afghanistan. Thier says that would be a calamity. He favors the long-term strategy outlined by the Obama administration and that’s true regardless of yesterday’s election.
THIER: The current US strategy is continued intensive investment in the building up of the Afghan government, particularly focusing on the Afghan government security forces, the army, and the police so that, as we used to say in Iraq, they can stand up so we can sit down. But that is not a short-term endeavor and I don’t think that the Obama administration sees that as a short-term endeavor.
SHARP: Andrew Wilder of the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University tends to agree.
ANDREW WILDER: I don’t think that the elections themselves will have a specific bearing on how long our troops are going to stay in Afghanistan. You know I think there’s already been a commitment to send more troops there but also quite clear that you know we need to see some turnaround in the situation in the next year or so.
SHARP: But a messy outcome would affect public opinion here in the United States and that would certainly affect the debate about troops down the line
WILDER: We are clearly already seeing a fairly significant shift in American domestic opinion regarding Afghanistan. Afghanistan used to be the quote-on-quote good war and had strong bipartisan support as well as public support in stark contrast to Iraq. But now that we’re exiting from Iraq there’s much more tension in Afghanistan and also much more tension that things aren’t going terribly well.
SHARP: That things are not going terribly well has only been underscored by the additional press coverage occasioned by the election. Now that it’s passed, the election itself isn’t the core issue. What matters is how well the next government performs. First though, there’s the tricky business of determining who won and whether the contest was fair. For The World I’m Jeb Sharp.
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