• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Analysis: Still a Dangerous Border

Council on Foreign Relations

May 5, 2008
Author: Jayshree Bajoria

The latest spike in cross-border attacks (NYT) into Afghanistan by militants based in Pakistan has once again exposed the vulnerabilities of those fighting the war for a stable Afghanistan. In a repeat of past instances, Afghan officials blamed (IHT) the recent assassination attempt against Afghan President Hamid Karzai on insurgents in Pakistan’s tribal areas with links to al-Qaeda. A spokesperson from Pakistan’s army denied (Daily Times) the allegations. But all recent U.S. intelligence and investigative reports have pointed to the growing strength of the terrorist groups in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) along the Afghan border.“Using the sanctuary in the border area of Pakistan, al-Qaeda has been able to maintain a cadre of skilled lieutenants capable of directing the organization’s operations around the world,” said the 2008 Annual Threat Assessment of the Director of National Intelligence.

President Karzai has called for these sanctuaries in Pakistan to be closed off. “The war against terrorism is not in Afghan villages, the war against terrorism is elsewhere, and that’s where the war should go,” he told the New York Times. Last year was Afghanistan’s bloodiest year since 2001, when the U.S.-led forces entered the country. A number of policy experts in the United States, including the leading Democratic presidential candidates, have called for more troops in Afghanistan to fight the insurgency, but some experts are skeptical that greater numbers will be more effective. “No matter how many more troops you add into Afghanistan, you won’t really be able to get at the root of the problem” (PBS), says Barnett Rubin of New York University. Rubin says more troops cannot affect the regional situation, which gives the Taliban sanctuary in Pakistan.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.