Senator John Kerry on Afghanistan
In today’s Washington Post, ASP Board Member and U.S. Senator John Kerry laid out a strategy for moving forward in Afghanistan. Senator Kerry praises President Obama’s decision to focus on Afghanistan as the center of the counterinsurgency campaign but makes the point clear that “Afghanistan is not Iraq, and we should not expect the same results from a troop increase as occurred in Iraq.”
To bring stability to the region, Senator Kerry believes, among other things, that we must crack down on the narcotics market, form a legitimate central government that is free of corruption, and increase the number of reliable Afghan forces.
Senator Kerry states: “The United States is not in Afghanistan to make it our 51st state — but to make sure it does not become an al-Qaeda narco-state and terrorist beachhead capable of destabilizing neighboring Pakistan.”
Read Senator Kerry’s Op-Ed here.
