Zakaria: Time to get real on Afghanistan

By Fareed Zakaria, CNN
The controversy over the desecration of copies of the Quran in Afghanistan and the murders of Americans that have followed is, on one level, one moment in a long, complicated war. But it also highlights the difficult and ultimately unsustainable aspect of America's Afghan policy. President Obama wants to draw down troops, but his strategy remains to transition power and authority to an Afghan national army and police force as well as to the government in Kabul, which would run the country and its economy. This is a fantasy. We must recognize that and pursue a more realistic alternative.
The United States tends to enter wars in developing countries with a simple idea - modernize the country, and you will solve the national security problem. An articulation of that approach came from none other than Newt Gingrich during a 2010 speech:

"The fact that we have been in this country for seven, eight years, and that we have not flooded the country with highways, we haven't guaranteed that every Afghan has a cell phone, we haven't undertaken the logical steps towards fundamentally modernizing their society."

Now, assuming that every Afghan got a cell phone and could travel on great highways, here is what would not change: The Afghan national government does not have the support of a large segment of its population, the Pashtuns. The national army is regarded as an army of Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras - the old Northern Alliance that battled the Pashtuns throughout the 1990s. And, simply put, Afghanistan's economy cannot support a large national government with a huge army. (The budget for Afghan security forces today is around $12 billion paid for by the US of course. That is eight times the amount of the government's annual revenue.)
As America has discovered in countless places over the past five decades, there are problems with this nation-building approach. First, it is extremely difficult to modernize a country in a few years. Second, even if this were possible, the fundamental characteristics of that society - its ethnicity, religion, and national and geopolitical orientation - persist despite modernization.
Accepting reality in Afghanistan would not leave America without options. We could have a smaller troop presence; we can pursue robust counterterrorism operations.
The United States could, of course, maintain its current approach, which is to bet on the success of not one but two large nation-building projects. We have to create an effective national government in Kabul that is loved and respected by all Afghans, whatever their ethnicity, and expand the Afghan economy so that a large national army and police force are sustainable for the long run.
To succeed, we would also have to alter Pakistan's basic character, create a civilian-dominated state that could shift the strategic orientation of the Islamabad government so that it shuts down the Taliban sanctuaries and starts fighting the very groups it has created and supported for at least three decades. Does anyone really think this is going to happen?
For more of my thoughts throughout the week, I invite you to follow me on Facebook and Twitter and to visit the Global Public Square every day. Be sure to catch GPS every Sunday at 10a.m. and 1p.m. EST. If you miss it, you can buy the show on iTunes.
Reported by cnn.com

FULL STORY

Obama chides governors for education cuts

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama told U.S. governors attending a luncheon Monday that they are cutting too much funding for education and need to make reforms while continuing to invest in the future of America's students.
While acknowledging the tough economic climate for state governments, Obama cited the need to prioritize the long-range significance of a strong education system.
"We've all faced some stark choices over the past several years, but that is no excuse to lose sight of what matters most, and the fact is that too many states are making cuts to education that I believe are simply too big," Obama told a White House gathering with the National Governors Association that included some of his harshest Republican critics.
"Nothing more clearly signals what you value as a state than the decisions you make about where to invest," Obama said. "Budgets are about choices, so today I'm calling on all of you: Invest more in education, invest more in our children and in our future."
The luncheon is an annual affair that highlights the constant tension over funding issues between the federal government and states. One table included Republican governors and constant Obama foes Chris Christie of New Jersey, Jan Brewer of Arizona, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Nikki Haley of South Carolina.
Obama noted the economic outlook is improving from the early days of his administration, saying, "our recovery is gaining speed."
However, he warned that a failure to maintain significant government investment in education now would cause economic harm in the future by leaving U.S. workers unable to compete in a global marketplace.
"I realize everybody is dealing with limited resources. Trust me, I know something about dealing with tight budgets," Obama said before citing statistics on decreasing numbers of teachers and higher university costs.
"No issue will have a bigger impact on the future performance of our economy than education," Obama said, adding that the unemployment rate for Americans with a college degree is roughly half the national average.
"Their incomes are about twice as high as those who only have a high school diploma," he added. "So this is what we should be focused on as a nation. It is what we should be talking about and debating. The countries who out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow. That's a simple fact."
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum called Obama a "snob" last week because the president advocates that American students to go to college.
Santorum framed the issue as Obama seeking to indoctrinate young Americans in what Santorum called the liberal leanings of a majority of U.S. colleges and universities over a four-year college career.
Obama, however, made clear Monday he was talking about all kinds of higher education, including community colleges and specialized training programs to help young people prepare to enter the modern workforce.
"When I speak about higher education, we're not just talking about a four-year degree," Obama said.
The first step is creating a national expectation that all students graduate high school, "at a minimum," the president said. At the same time, federal and state governments need to do what they can to make college affordable, he added.
"Americans now owe more in student loan debt than they do in credit card debt," Obama said, adding that "state budget cuts have been a major factor in rising tuition costs at state universities."
Insisting that "all of us have to do more," Obama said, "We can't allow higher education to be a luxury in this country.
"It's an economic imperative that every family in America has to be able to afford and, and frankly I don't think any of this should be a partisan issue," he continued to applause. "All of us should be about giving every American who wants to succeed that chance."

Reported by www.cnn.com

FULL STORY