Taliban Stepping Up Attacks in Afghanistan

“A coordinated series of terrorist attacks in Kabul on Jan. 18, the day President Hamid Karzai was swearing in his new cabinet, shows that the Taliban are readying themselves for a showdown with Afghan forces before the increase in the number of foreign troops in Afghanistan becomes a reality. This attack, a planned effort to hit many government targets through the use of suicide bombers as well as snipers and bomb detonations, shows that the Taliban are becoming more sophisticated and dangerous. All the attackers were doomed to be killed given the strength of various security forces in the Kabul area, but the attackers had a different objective than just killing people. They apparently want to scare the people of Afghanistan while also reacting to the news of the U.S. led military surge in coming months,” says Asia Society Bernard Schwartz Fellow Hassan Abbas. “The U.S. Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke also happens to be in the region, and in addition to meeting the foreign minister and prime minister of Pakistan he also visited the Swat valley area which was reclaimed from militants by Pakistan’s army a few months ago. It is important to note that he appreciated Pakistan’s success in Swat while making a media statement in New Delhi afterwards. U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has also reached Pakistan after his trip to India to meet with political and military leaders. While emphasizing that the United States would like to help India and Pakistan focus less on each other and more on the terrorism threat, he acknowledged that the two countries prefer to settle their differences themselves. Probably, the U.S. administration is devising a new regional policy to deal with the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan.” Hassan is based in New York.

“The bomb blast and Taliban attacks on key government sites in Kabul are yet more evidence of how extremely difficult it will be for the new Obama strategy to succeed in Afghanistan. The Afghan government and the international community will need to show real progress over the course of this year to succeed, while all the Taliban has to do is prevent this from happening and let American domestic political pressure slowly pull the plug on Afghan funding if things aren’t looking better at the end of President Obama’s 18 month period. It’s little wonder that Taliban leaders are poo-pooing offers of dialogue with the government. From their perspective, it may well seem that they possess a winning hand,” says Asia Society Executive Vice President Jamie Metzl. Jamie is in New York. He was project director for Asia Society’s task force report on stabilizing Afghanistan and Pakistan and served as an election monitor in Kabul.

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