Ex-US envoy for de facto partition of Afghanistan

[azara]

NEW DELHI: Should Afghanistan be divided into two? Former US envoy to
India, Robert Blackwill, has suggested that the US should effect a de
facto partition of Afghanistan.

The current counter-insurgency is not working, he says, because the
Taliban don't see why they should negotiate peace when they haven't
been defeated on the ground. The US, he suggests, will have to
reconcile to the fact that the Taliban will control southern
Afghanistan. They should be allowed to do so.

"After years of faulty US policy toward Afghanistan, there are no
quick, easy and cost-free ways to escape the current deadly quagmire.
But, with all its problems, de facto partition offers the best
available US alternative to strategic defeat," Blackwill argues in an
article in `Politico'.

Having let the Taliban control southern Afghanistan, the US, he says,
should "then focus on defending the north and west regions -- roughly
60% of the population. These areas, including Kabul, are not Pashtun-
dominated and locals are largely sympathetic to US efforts".

But it would not mean that the US would completely exit. Instead, "we
would then make it clear that we would rely heavily on US air power
and special forces to target any al-Qaida base in Afghanistan, as well
as Afghan Taliban leaders who aided them. We would also target Afghan
Taliban encroachments across the de facto partition lines and
terrorist sanctuaries along the Pakistan border."

The US would work to secure the north and west and Kabul, which has
considerably less Taliban presence or influence. "This might mean a
long-time residual US military force in Afghanistan of about 40,000 to
50,000 troops. We would enlist Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras and supportive
Pashtuns in this endeavour, as well as our NATO allies, Russia, India,
Iran, perhaps China, Central Asian nations and, hopefully, the UN
Security Council."

The US, he says, would retain the freedom to strike at even civilian
Taliban leaders in southern Afghanistan.

The arrangement, he says, would make Pakistan unhappy, but a "Pakistan
would likely oppose de facto partition. Managing Islamabad's reaction
would be no easy task -- not least because the Pakistan military
expects a strategic gain once the US military withdraws from
Afghanistan."

Reference: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Ex-US-envoy-for-de-facto-partition-of-Afghanistan/articleshow/6141155.cms