French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s decision to withdraw his forces from Afghanistan by 2013, a year ahead of 2014 set by the NATO for troops pullout, would bolster Taliban’s morale in fighting NATO-led forces stationed in the country, Afghan analysts said.
“No doubt, the pullout of French forces before 2014 would psychologically encourage the Taliban to increase attacks against international forces stationed in Afghanistan,” a security analyst from Kabul-based think-tank, the Research Center for Strategy Studies, Wahid Mujda said in an interview.
A man in Afghan army uniform opened fire and killed four French soldiers and injured 15 others in Kapisa province on January 20. The bloody incident prompted France to suspend training Afghan troops and pull out its forces in 2013, he said.
“Since the districts of Alasai and Tagab in Kapisa province are unstable, the government of France wants Afghan forces to take over the security charge of the both districts in 2013, but the Afghan forces are not capable enough to take over the responsibility there,” said Mujda who worked with Taliban Foreign Ministry before the outfit’s regime ouster in late 2001.
When his opinion was sought towards early exit of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from Afghanistan, the former Taliban official said, “The speedy pace of foreign forces withdrawal would encourage Taliban to speed up their attacks and thus force more nations to follow France in taking their troops out of Afghanistan.” Asked to comment on Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s ongoing visit to Europe and the inking of strategic agreements partnership with Italy, France and Britain, the analyst believed that signing agreements is part of the efforts to have international community’ s support beyond 2014 when the NATO-led forces complete pullout of Afghanistan.
“The government of Afghanistan wants to have international community’s support after 2014 but keeping in mind the financial crisis in Europe, the world community support would not be as generous as in the past decade,” Mujda observed.
Another analyst agreed with Mujda that early withdrawal of NATO- led forces from Afghanistan would boost Taliban’s morale to intensify activities.
“In fact, early withdrawal of French forces after killing four soldiers in Kapisa province by the Taliban, is a retreat in war on terror which eventually will encourage Taliban and al Qaeda fighters to intensify attacks against international forces based in Afghanistan,” said Nazari Pariani, the editor-in-chief of Mandegar daily.
“If we want to win the war on terror we should tolerate casualties, otherwise, the French early withdrawal would encourage Taliban to intensify attacks and make excuse for other nations to follow the step and take their forces out of Afghanistan,” Pariani said. He also hailed inking strategic agreements with Italy, France and Britain but was of the view that the international community’s support to Afghanistan would be reduced after the completion of foreign forces’ drawdown in 2014.
