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The going has never been good for the U.S. ever since its invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. The situation has really deteriorated over the past months and it looks like the U.S. may decide to call it quits sooner than later.
Having defeated the British and the Soviet Super powers, Afghanistan now seems poised to defeat the U.S. The overall situation in Afghanistan has been fast deteriorating. July and August last year were the deadliest months for the U.S. and the NATO troops in that as many as 26 U.S. and NATO soldiers were killed then. The deadly front took a more sinister turn when a double agent blasted himself in the U.S. military base in Khost on Dec 30, 2009, killing 7 CIA operatives. This was the deadliest attack on the CIA since 1983.
The Afghan war is becoming increasingly unpopular in the U.S. Responding to a Washington Post-ABC news poll, 51 percent Americans said they believe this war is not worth fighting. Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff has said that the situation in Afghanistan was serious and deteriorating but hoped that the trend could be reversed. He conceded, nevertheless, that the Taliban were gaining strength. Over the last couple of years, the Taliban insurgency has certainly gained strength and become more sophisticated.
Jessica Mathew, President of the prestigious Carnegie Endowment for Peace, is of the view that Afghanistan could be for Obama what Iraq has been for Bush or Vietnam was for Johnson. It was, however, Richard Haas, President of the Council on Foreign Relations, who created ripples with an article in the New York Times, saying that even though he is not for quitting but would insist on reassessment of the conditions in Afghanistan. He insists the U.S. must reflect on whether its efforts are bearing fruit or are likely to. He suggested the President should roll back the U.S.' combatant role and withdraw militarily. If Afghanistan were a war of necessity, it would justify any level of efforts but it is not such a war. Senator Russell Feign, a member of three powerful Senate committees has counseled "the time has come for the U.S. to start discussing a flexible timetable to take its troops out of Afghanistan".
According to him "dedicating a disproportionate amount of resources to the military operations of one country is not the effective way of combating the terrorism we face. Even if we invest billions of dollars annually for the next ten years and sacrifice hundreds of American lives, we are not likely to get a credible government capable of governing all Afghan territory. The Controlling Terrorism Centre at the West Point Military Academy in the U.S. as well as the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies have confirmed and testified that Islamic militants are gaining ground both militarily and politically despite such massive and high-tech military operations against them.
The ground realities in Afghanistan confirm these observations and predictions. Late last year, the Taliban snatched two oil tankers from the NATO troops in Kunduz in northern Afghanistan. Subsequently, a large number of civilians were killed in the bombing by the NATO in retaliation. Kunduz being in the north of Afghanistan, it seems the area hitherto considered hostile to the Taliban, has now come under their sway. Several oil tankers on way to Afghanistan for the NATO troops were attacked and scorched near Quetta, Pakistan. This is the first incident of its kind concerning Quetta. The leader of the Jamiatul Islam, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, an important coalition partner of the present pro American government, has lashed out publicly, stating, "The U.S. is out to create a mini-Pentagon in Pakistan."
The "go America go" movement which has been sparked off by the drone attacks has been gaining momentum. However, two recent developments may prove catalysts in sealing the fate of the U.S. occupation in Afghanistan. The blasting of the UN guest house in Kabul by Taliban suicide bombers killing five or six UN officials resulted in the UN withdrawing 600 of its workers and shifting them to a safer location outside Afghanistan. Worse still, Afghan policemen killed five U.S. soldiers and later the U.S./NATO Air force in a raid killed Afghan security and military officials as a result of a so-called friendly fire. This goes a long way in showing that the Afghan security officials and the U.S./NATO forces have developed strained relations verging on hostility against each other.
No wonder then that the U.S. is now desperately seeking reconciliation with the Taliban and has asked Pakistan to play a role in the peace initiative. The top U.S. NATO commander, General Stanley McChrystal has said that unless Osama is captured or killed, it will not be possible to win the Afghan war.
While the U.S. is asking Pakistan to persuade the Afghan Taliban for reconciliation with the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been urging Pakistan to go beyond South Waziristan in battling the Taliban. The U.S. military leadership is now insisting that the Pakistan army not only fight the Taliban of Pakistan but should also take on the Afghan Taliban, such as the Haqqani group.
President Obama after hectic consultations with his top advisors finally decided to send an additional 30,000 troops into Afghanistan, to be withdrawn by July 2011. The decision ignored Pakistan's repeated requests to the U.S. to take its national security interests into consideration in formulating its new strategy. The U.S. has, instead, chosen to hold out a covert threat to Pakistan that if it cannot or does not dismantle the Al-Qaida safe havens on its side of the border, it would take military action to carry out this objective. The Pakistan military has run into tough resistance and is also faced with the threat of a possible limited war with its eastern neighbor while, at the same time, combating Indian-sponsored subversive activities in Balochistan.
The most disquieting part of the new U.S. strategy is that it takes for granted the existence of safe havens in Pakistan from which the Al-Qaida is alleged to be operating. After a meeting between Obama and the Indian Prime Minister in Washington in November 2009, it was announced that India would have a role in the dismantling of Al-Qaida's safe havens in Pakistan. The spokesman of the Pakistan Foreign Office expressed concern about the new U.S. strategy in the following words:
"There is certainly a need for clarity and coordination on all aspects of the implementation of this strategy, the foremost concern was the area of deployment of additional troops the United States planned to deploy in war-torn Afghanistan. It was a serious issue for Pakistan because reports suggested that Afghanistan's territory was being used as a transit route for the supply of weapons to militants battling security forces in South Wazirastan and Malakand District".
It seems the moment of truth about the U.S. strategic partnership with Pakistan has arrived. Who knows, the time may also have come for Pakistan to cut loose and run from this so-called strategic partnership with U.S. 
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