Minimalism in Afghanistan

By Dave Anderson:

I have advocated foreign policy minimalism which means identifying core US interests and pursuing them but not caring about who controls a local smuggling route as long as control of that smuggling route does not directly threaten a core US interest.  The overwhelming US strategic interest in Afghanistan is to minimize the capacity and willingness of global far strike terrorist groups from striking at the US, its citizens or US allies.  That is it.  Propping up the Karzai government should be at best a tertiary goal.

US intelligence has long reported that the vast majority of the fighters in Afghanistan are "accidental guerrillas," who are shooting at the US, ISAF and Afghan government forces for purely local reasons that include the fact that there is a shit town of foreigners who are trying to impose their will onto the local turf.  The number of far enemy/long range strike terrorist groups and fighters is fairly small.  

It actually sounds like Gates, Obama and others are starting to focus on the fact that we really should not care too much about who controls the timber a smuggling routes in the Korengal Valley, or the poppy fields near Khandahar. Most of the people who are shooting at US forces are not going to attempt to blow up an airliner or their crotch near Detroit.  

"The Taliban, we recognize, are part of the political fabric of Afghanistan at this point," Gates told AFP. "The question is whether they are prepared to play a legitimate role in the political fabric of Afghanistan going forward, meaning participating in elections, meaning not assassinating local officials and killing families

Addressing local problems and cutting local deals that address the concerns of the local elites on the ground should allow the US to focus on the small number of far enemy/distant strike groups far more effectively and with a far higher probability of success.  We have to make peace with enemies, not friends, and making peace with enemies we are fighting over tertiary concerns should be a step forward to achievable goals.