Afghanistan Has Become a Terrorist Paradise
There is a national interest in stopping the meltdown in South Asia using all of the tools in our national security toolbox.
After a year of growing Taliban-Haqqani-Al Qaeda terror activity, nations should start training and assisting Afghan forces willing to conduct counter-terrorism operations to find and eliminate Taliban-Haqqani, Al Qaeda, or ISIS-K terror networks. Proper human rights and legal oversight must of course be part of any assistance—covert or overt. If Afghans are successful in eradicating enough terrorists to reestablish inclusive governance with democratic principles and full human rights protections, a NATO-like coalition that includes many Muslim-majority nations should deploy a counterterrorism task force to aid former Afghan National Security Force members in eradicating all terrorist groups inside Afghanistan. Afghanistan has a core capability of young people able to rebuild the police and military quickly.
The removal of terrorists from Afghanistan is a critical Afghan task, but other nations can help with minimal effort and risk if they are willing to seriously change Pakistan’s calculus on its support for terrorism. NATO needs to renegotiate its relationship with Pakistan to secure Pakistani cooperation on an improved counterterrorism strategy across South Asia. The creation of a counterterrorism center near Kabul that can serve the entire region is an affordable and low-risk insurance policy against another 9/11 that does not need to be manned by U.S. forces.
Jason Criss Howk is the Director and co-founder of Global Friends of Afghanistan. He has worked on Afghanistan portfolios since 2002 and was in the rare position to closely witness each of the four US presidential administration’s discussions of US policy in Afghanistan. An award-winning writer, his latest book is U.S. War Options in Afghanistan. He holds an MA in South Asia and Middle East Security Studies from the Naval Postgraduate School, is a Malone Fellow in Arab and Islamic Studies, and was a Term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He studied Arabic and Dari at DLI, is a retired U.S. Army Foreign Area Officer, and is currently a professor at the USAF Special Operations School.
Image: Reuters.