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   It may lose the war in Afghanistan. Pakistan teeters. Today's Post says that the Obama administration now frets about that nation's stability.  Michael Mullen, Obama's top military adviser, on Wednesday dismissed reports of infighting within the Obama adminstration over Afghanistan war strategy. ...

 The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the US military's Operation Enduring Freedom that was launched, along with the British military 
What is the human cost of the war in Afghanistan for British forces? As British troop deaths exceed 300, these are the latest figures - including new .

Risks in 2010: The Endless Afghan War

Afghanistan has become a synonym for disaster. America and its allies have failed to eradicate Al Qaeda, defeat the Taliban, or stabilize the country. Terrorist plots hatched in the region remain a threat to the wider world. The World Economic Forum thus lists Afghanistan as the biggest geopolitical risk in 2010.

U.S. President Barack Obama seems to share this assessment. He decided to send 30.000 additional soldiers to the front despite his election pledge to withdraw troops.

Afghanistan’s presidential election was accompanied by poor security and undermined by ballot fraud and open intimidation. Faith in the state is at an all time low among many Afghans. Many of them still believe that only the Taliban can liberate Afghanistan from Western meddling.



The attempt to impose democracy has resulted in a lawless limbo, boosting corruption and the opium trade. Although the interim administration banned poppy growing in 2002, Afghanistan still supplied 90 percent of the world’s opiates in 2009.
According to the WEF, this constant instability threatens also neighboring countries like Turkmenistan, Iran, and Uzbekistan. The border between Afghanistan and Pakistan has become a war zone, prompting a flood of refugees and terrorist attacks in Pakistan.

The country’s agonies are compounded by rapid population growth. Afghanistan’s population—currently about 28 million—is expected to increase by over 30 percent in less than ten years. Many will be young men with little hope of getting a job: a recipe for further radicalization.

The World Bank has warned that population growth, along with climate change, is already causing water stress and could lead to outright scarcity.



Economic and social development, not military power, will most likely improve the situation. But after decades of conflict, the Afghan state lacks the laws, the institutions, and the infrastructure for a growing economy. 

President Barack Obama is letting down his troops and seems not to have the commitment and 'X-factor' to win the war in Afghanistan, Bob Woodward has told .

The newest way General Petraeus plans to measure success in the war in Afghanistan reminded me of what the government did when its campaign to persuade.

 

 

 

The Soviet War in Afghanistan was an almost ten-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic .