NATO's recent offensive in southern Afghanistan has clearly failed. The Taleban have done what everyone, except the American commanders realised, they simply relocated to the mountains and in the timeless Afghan tradition will wait out the foreign invaders. The question for US-led NATO now is, now what? Numerous exit strategies have been presented such as defeating the Taleban militarily and co-opting local tribal groups; however, Obama summed it up recently when he said there was no quick fix and the US would need to spend a great deal of time in the country. Mecasr has been thinking about possible end-games of late and has come up with a few suggestions:
1. Divide the country up into three countries and cede some Pushtun areas along the Pakistan border to Pakistan. Too much investment has gone into Kabul while its extremities are racked by conflict, tribalism and ethnic distrust. Giving people their own state is the only solution. As we saw with Korea and Japan, homogenous societies are quite capable of developing - ethnic rivalries are the primary point of contestation in states from Africa to Asia where the democratic model has failed.
2. Centre all NATO forces on the three main cities, Kandahar, Herat and Kabul and the transport routes. Leave the Taleban in their mountain strongholds.
3. Reform the state. Corruption is rampant. Get rid of the riff raff and start again. Karzai must go.
4. Include Iran and other neighbouring states in the internal security of the state. NATO can't do it alone.
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