Strategic Panorama 2009 - 2010 - IEEE

José María Robles Fraga
should they think that at this stage in the game their credit and the West’s
patience are unlimited.
It is now up to the international community, the US and its European
and Atlantic allies to insist that the time has come to crack down on
inefficiency and corruption and to broaden the political and ethnic base
of Karzai’s government, accompanying the improvement in ISAF’s military
capability and the arrival of US reinforcements with policies that bolster its
weakened authority and promote a division between the insurgents and
national reconciliation.
Karzai has little room for manoeuvre but it is he who should seize the
opportunity he is being offered to steer Afghanistan in a new direction
and avoid the failure of an entire country which, despite all odds, is still
holding out against the Taliban and their barbarous and bloodthirsty plans.
The alternative is not acceptable to the international community and nor
should it be to the current Afghan leaders.
If the international community is capable of maintaining its commitment
to Afghanistan over time, adapting to the tactical and strategic changes
that progressively occur, and of facing up to the insurgency with the right
means and methods, and if pressure is kept up from the Pakistani side
we would have a genuine opportunity to fulfil the mandate that was begun
to be established in 2001. This would allow us to contribute to stability in
the region, to the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan and to
defeating global Jihadist terrorism at its base and main recruiting centre.
PAKISTAN
The shadow of neighbouring Pakistan has always weighed heavily
on Afghanistan’s destiny. It has also been one of most glaring absences
from the West’s policy. Since the beginning of the intervention against the
Taliban the need to bear in mind the regional dimension of the Afghan problem
has been discussed but very little has been done in this direction and
we are not devoting much effort to neighbouring Pakistan, a major actor
on this stage of which it is an integral and essential part. Settling—for want
of anything better—for the assurances given to Washington by the then
president, General Musharraf, we let him off for the constant ambiguity
that allowed him to retain US and European support, fight against al-
Qaeda and at the same time preserve his relations with the Afghan Taliban
and other Jihadist groups. In the throes of the «war on terror» Pakistan
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