Publication

Getting into Afghanistan is not always easy and getting out even more difficult. This is also the experience of the US and other foreign forces now. The 'green on blue' attacks are symptomatic of the existing complexities. The plan to leave behind a large Afghan National Army without assured requisite funding after the Western withdrawal in 2014 is not a good one. The chances are the Army will dissolve into militias on ethnic and tribal lines, exacerbating intra-mural conflicts. It would be more worthwhile spending the available resources on 'peace-building' projects, some of which have already been tested, than on a non-existent sense of central, or Kabul-based, security.