Obama's Afghanistan Plan: The Partner Problem

President Barack Obama offered a well-articulated if somewhat hazy vision last night of his plans to stabilize the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan. The core idea is to increase foreign support for the Afghan government and security forces in order to allow them to develop the capacity to improve governance and confront the Taliban insurgency more independently. The basic problem with implementing this strategy is that the Afghan government and security forces continue to experience numerous difficulties. In addition, the administration's other sought-after foreign partners are either leaving the field of battle or refusing to enter it.

In order for the president's plan -- which calls for surging 30,000 U.S. troops into Afghanistan for 18 months -- to work, an effective Afghan security structure must be able to take their place once they are subsequently withdrawn. Obama indicated last night that he expected Afghans to assume this role, arguing that the temporary troop increase -- of which 5,000 of the troops will be dedicated to providing additional military training to the Afghan army -- "will allow us to accelerate handing over responsibility to Afghan forces." ...