CNAS conference hits (VII): Let the Afghans have their civil war, says West

I couldn’t make it to all the sessions at the CNAS conference because I had some other business to take care of whilst in DC. The next panel I heard was (most of) a terrific discussion on Afghanistan and Pakistan featuring Steve Coll (author of a bunch of good books on Afghanistan, bin Laden, al Qaeda, and India), former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson, the aforementioned Bing West, former U.S. commander in Afghanistan retired Lt. Gen. David Barno, and Rajiv Chandrasekaran.

I missed the beginning of this session, but when I got back to the conference, West was being provocative. "Let the Afghans do their own fighting in their own civil war," he recommended.

Coll responded, rather drily, "I think it would be quite unwise for us to have a policy goal of inducing a civil war." Patterson added that West’s prescription would destabilize Pakistan. Barno, who just co-authored a new CNAS report on the future of Afghanistan and the region, said that an unstable Afghanistan threatens to destabilize the entire region, and that is dangerous in a region where India and Pakistan already possess nuclear weapons.  

Both Pakistan and Afghanistan already are in civil wars, West countered. "As long as we do it for them, they are not going to do it for themselves." Barno agreed that the Afghans are ready to fight for themselves and that we should be getting out of the way and allowing them to do more.