Balochistan is the only way out for international community...
U.S. Afghan And South Asian Policy Suffers From Strategic Stagnation
By: Lawrence Sellin
Retired Colonel, U.S. Army Reserve
President Trump is seeking what he called a "historic" 9 percent increase in military spending, even as the United States has wound down major wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and remains the world's strongest military power. Trump will ask Congress to boost Pentagon spending in the next fiscal year by $54 billion in his first budget proposal and slash the same amount from non-defense spending, including a large reduction in foreign aid, a White House budget official said. The president does not have the final say on federal spending. His plan for the military is part of a budget proposal to Congress. Although controlled by his fellow Republicans, Congress will not necessarily follow his plans. Budget negotiations with lawmakers can take months to play out. Officials familiar with Trump's budget blueprint said the defense increase would be financed partly by cuts to the State Department, Environmental Protection Agency and other non-defense programs. Trump's budget will not seek cuts in federal social programs such as Social Security and Medicare, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani
While Washington D.C. frets over military stalemate and troop levels, American policy in Afghanistan and South Asia is about to be overtaken by events, which potentially could render the U.S. strategically irrelevant for a generation or more.
Even the dimmest foreign policy analyst should recognize by now that the U.S. and NATO cannot succeed in Afghanistan without a significant change in the strategic environment because Pakistan controls the operational tempo of the war and the supply of our troops.
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