Ken Gude: A new plan to fight al-Qaida along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border

It appears there is only one kind of news coming from Afghanistan and Pakistan these days: bad news. Violence and casualties are up, military options are down and al-Qaida has moved into a new safe haven across the Pakistani border. Seven years is a long time to be fighting to be back at square one. Whether out of necessity or innovation, it is time that American and European strategy in the region lessen its reliance on military force as its primary instrument and pursue a more robust political and economic development programme that can enable Afghanistan and Pakistan to reach a more sustainable and secure future. June was the deadliest month both for US and coalition forces in Afghanistan since the October 2001 invasion. The dramatic rise in global food prices has hit the already impoverished Afghan population hard, a... [read full story]