Afghanistan risks collapsing unless the United States and its allies redouble their fight against Taliban insurgents and
rebuild the impoverished country, experts warned US lawmakers late on Wednesday.
Unfortunately Afghanistan has taken a back seat to US military involvement in Iraq and still does, said Karl Inderfurth, a former senior diplomat under ex-president Bill Clinton’s administration.
Some way must be found to deal with this perpetual problem of Afghanistan being overshadowed by the Iraq war.
Defeating the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan will require a more coherent and robust effort among Washington and its allies, employing diplomatic and economic means as well as military operations, he said.
Without a genuine and long-term commitment on the part of the United States and the international community, Afghanistan will fail again, said Inderfurth, the former assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs.
Inderfurth warned Washington had previously abandoned Afghanistan after 1989 with terrible consequences, culminating in the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Citing a new Hollywood film, Charlie Wilson’s War which depicts the true story of a Texas lawmaker’s efforts to funnel arms to Afghan Mujahideen fighters battling Soviet
troops occupying Afghanistan in the 1980s Inderfurth said the movie carried an important
message.
We walked away from Afghanistan after the Russians withdrew their forces in 1989, he said. We all know what happened after that, up to and including 9/11. This is the take-away message. We still have time to get Charlie Wilson’s war right.