ISAS Insights

As the end game came to be played in so far as America's involvement in Afghanistan was concerned, the country's senior leaders decided to focus a great deal of their attention on the work of the Haqqani network that had strong bases in several Afghan provinces neighbouring Pakistan - in particular the provinces of Khost, Pakti and Paktika - as well as in the North Waziristan Agency of Pakistan. The network was implicated in a number of high profile acts of terrorism in and around Kabul including the attack on the US Embassy in the Afghan capital. Given the dynamics that was unleashed as a consequence of the announcement by President Barack Obama that the pullout from Afghanistan had already started and the American forces will leave to country by the end 2014, positioning and repositioning of the various forces operating in Afghanistan began in serious earnest. In the meantime a large Afghan security force will be trained to look after the interests of the Afghan state and the nation. There was considerable political pressure on Obama to abide by the timetable. The drain caused by the war on the US Treasury had become untenable. This led to the question as to what kind of Afghanistan Washington should leave behind. Ideally this would mean a country at peace with itself and its neighbours. But for this unlikely outcome to be realised, a number of things needed to happen. One of the more important of these is to have the powerful Haqqani network in the country's south and with a sanctuary in Pakistan to align itself with Washington's broad objectives. Would the use of force bring this about or would negotiations among different interest parties produce the desired result?