President elect Obama has signaled that he will concentrated more on Afghanistan. It may is good that he is focusing there but one needs to be careful here. There are some very big differences between Iraq and Afghanistan.
Government’s biggest contribution to society is a providing a system. Anarchy is no form of government. So, when we look at the recent history of Iraq, there was a social and government structure. No matter how bad things were in Iraq under Saddam, he was not Taliban. People in Iraq had a government which touched all the aspects of the society. Iraqi’s lived under some kind of order and system. Now so called democracy in Iraq is taking shape it is still in no way be compared to Afghanistan.I still am very skeptical of the success because, when US troops draw down in number there will be a bigger power vacuum than estimated. Iran will gain more influence then.
Afghanistan was always a mess from 1970’s. Right after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan they have know war and only fighting. There never has been a central governing structure for nearly 20 years from 1975-1995, they accepted the Taliban. Only reason for this was Taliban brought order. Moreover Afghanistan guys are super-nationalists. They have never been controlled over thousand years, this goes back to the days of Pre-Mogul era. Even the British struggled here so much they gave up. The Sunni kind awakening is not in the interest of any group here. Here not only Iran could cause problems, Russians and Chinese can also insert their influence.
The surge is not a very good idea. Afghanistan could easily blow up in the face of the new administration.
More report on the surge by Reuters.
