Center for American Progress Releases Security Plan for Afghanistan

Sometime during the next week, the Obama administration is expected to unveil its much-anticipated overhaul of the Afghanistan war and related policy toward Pakistan. Before it does, though, the Center for American Progress wants to offer some guidance. Security fellows Larry Korb, Caroline Wadhams, Colin Cookman, Sean Duggan have released their plan for the war, called “Sustainable Security.” It urges the administration to orient policy around three interrelated goals:

• Ensure that Afghanistan does not again become a launching pad for international terrorism
• Prevent a power vacuum in Afghanistan that would further destabilize Pakistan and the region
• Prevent Afghanistan from being ruled by extreme elements of the Taliban and other extremist groups.

If that’s what Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta called a “reductionist” approach to the country during his talk at CAP last month, someone forgot to tell the CAP fellows. Endorsing the U.S. troop increase, they propose a ten-year plan for Afghanistan, incorporating a bevy of political, economic, diplomatic and agricultural programs. I’m about to run out to something, but will read the full report when I get back.

(Full disclosure: CAP’s ThinkProgress adjunct hosted my personal blog for a few months last year. I don’t have any further affiliation with them, aside from occasionally attending their events and eating their free food.)