The US-led "war on terror" will end when moderate Muslims stand up to extremism in Afghanistan, US Senator Joseph Lieberman wrote Friday in the Wall Street Journal. In an opinion article, the independent senator from Connecticut - a supporter of Republican John McCain's failed 2008 presidential bid - acknowledged militants in Afghanistan "have grown in strength, size and sophistication."
Foreign troops are waging an uphill battle against Taliban militants - who controlled Kabul from 1996 to 2001 - and al Qaeda. "Afghans are not eager to return to the tyranny and poverty of the Taliban," Lieberman wrote. "That is why the insurgents have not won their support and must resort to self-defeating tactics of cruelty and coercion."
The "war on terror will end" when coalition forces "have empowered and expanded the mainstream Muslim majority to stand up and defeat the extremist minority." This is "the opportunity we have in Afghanistan today: to make that country into a quagmire, not for America but for al Qaeda, the Taliban and their fellow Islamist extremists, and into a graveyard in which their dreams of an Islamist empire are finally buried," Lieberman wrote.
But Lieberman admitted that "even if we do everything right, conditions are likely to get worse before they get better, and the path ahead will still be long, costly and hard." Lieberman supported President Barack Obama's pledge to sent additional forces to the country - about 10-12,000 combat troops - but argued "turning the tide will take more than additional troops."
Among measures Lieberman recommends is the expansion of the Afghan army to at least 200,000 troops and a broad "long-term American commitment to Afghanistan." The United States should offer the Afghan government a "large-scale, 10-year package of governance and development aid in exchange for specific benchmarks on performance and progress," he wrote.
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