by Octavian Manea
Download the Full Article: Future of Pakistan up in the Air: Interview with Bruce Riedel
In early 2009 you were pivotal in directing and elaborating the basic strategic framework that it is still at the core of the current operations. How would you assess the progress in destroying AQ sanctuaries in the AfPak region since then? Did ISAF break the Afghan Taliban's momentum?
The death of Usama bin Laden is a major success for the American strategy as is the pressure the al Qaeda core is under from the drone program. Both those operations required bases in Afghanistan. The surge forces have also broken the Taliban's momentum in southern Afghanistan and prevented a catastrophic collapse of Afghan authority there. The progress we made is still fragile and reversible which suggests that a significant and rapid drawdown of the NATO forces in Afghanistan would be very dangerous and foolish at this point.
Download the Full Article: Future of Pakistan up in the Air: Interview with Bruce Riedel
Bruce Riedel is senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. A former CIA officer, he was a senior advisor to three U.S. presidents on Middle East and South Asian issues. At the request of President Obama he chaired an interagency review of policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan for the White House that was completed in March 2009. Riedel's latest book is Deadly Embrace: Pakistan, America, and the Future of Global Jihad.
Octavian Manea is Editor of FP Romania, the Romanian edition of Foreign Policy.