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EDITORIAL: The next war in Afghanistan - Washington Times
American troops will soon leave Afghanistan. What could become a key policy question for the 2012 election is, what will happen after they depart?
A series of new polls show that the public wants to wash its hands of Afghanistan. The trend was well-established even before recent anti-American riots and the massacre of 16 Afghan civilians, allegedly at the hands of Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales. When Mr. Obama took office, a majority still believed that the war was worth fighting, but his lackluster performance in prosecuting the "war of necessity" has convinced them otherwise. An ABC News/Washington Post poll from the first week in March shows just 35 percent consider the war worth fighting, and 60 percent do not. A March Pew Research Center poll found similar results, with 35 percent saying the coalition should remain in force until the country is stabilized and 57 percent wanting forces pulled out now. A USA Today/Gallup survey concluded 24 percent wanted forces out by the 2014 deadline, and 50 percent wanted to speed up that timetable...Afghans are preparing for civil war, similar to the one that broke out after the Soviet Union withdrew in 1989. The United States should pledge to support the elected Afghan central government and sympathetic provincial leaders with air power, intelligence support and other critical capabilities to prevent a Taliban takeover. The strategy would look much like the transformational, small-footprint approach Mr. Bush employed to destabilize and ultimately overthrow the Taliban regime in the fall of 2001. It may not prevent extremists from making local gains in the countryside - which they seem to be doing anyway - but it would stop them from taking control of the entire country and again making it into a headquarters for global terrorism.