On a surprise visit to Kabul Tuesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Afghan President Hamid Karzai that the United States "will never turn our back" from Afghanistan. Gate's trip to the war zone came only a week after President Barack Obama pledged to send 30,000 more U.S. troops to embattled country, with another 7,000 to come from other NATO nations. In the long run, however, success in the counterinsurgency campaign against the Taliban will depend on building up Afghan security forces. Only soldiers, police and administrators drawn from the local population possess the necessary knowledge of the people, language, and culture to be effective in creating the national loyalty needed for victory. A surge of U.S.-NATO forces may be necessary to stabilize the situation, but reliance on foreign troops by the central government in Kabul undermines its legitimacy and calls into question whether it has the strength to rule.Afghanistan is a poor country while fielding the...(Read Full Post)