WASHINGTON, Aug 19 (AFP) - The United States should pour more resources in the battle against Islamic militancy and the drugs trade in Afghanistan, analysts told a forum here Thursday.
Three years after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan that drove the Taliban from power, the Islamic militants remain a formidable force and continue to fuel international terrorism, they told a conference on "prospects for post-election Afghanistan" organized by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
"Long-term commitment has got to be there," said Marvin Weinbaum, a scholar at the US-based Middle East Institute.
"And the question is: are they (US) going to realise this sooner rather than later so that we don't have to go in and rescue the situation," he said.
"We can prevent it from getting to that point. That's why we need the commitment now," he said.
Weinbaum, who had served as analyst for Pakistan and Afghanistan in the US State Department, said the war against terrorism and the drugs trade in Afghanistan could be distracted by the raging insurgency in Iraq.
"When you compare what resources have gone into Afghanistan with what is going supposedly into Iraq, there is something very much amiss here, particularly as we all agree that is going to be a long-term commitment," he said.
Atiq Sarwari of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars said the security problem in Afghanistan was "deteriorating by each passing day" as terrorism increased with booming narcotics trade controlled by warlords.
"International organizations are leaving the country not only for lack of security but because the complaint is nobody is doing anything about it or nobody is capable of doing anything about it," he lamented.
Sarwawi, a native of Afghanistan, said the resurgence of Taliban militancy in vast areas of east, south and part of central Afghanistan "shouldn't have happened three years after the war on terrorism" and "poses a serious threat to the Afghan government."
He claimed that between 30 and 40 percent of soldiers initially enlisted with the Afghan national army to meet a pre-election deadline had already deserted and that the training period for the remaining recruits had been reduced from 12 weeks to eight weeks.
"There is a tendency to rush things to meet deadlines -- that may not prove be a good thing for Afghanistan," he warned, citing the country's first presidential elections in October as an example.
"Many already think that the elections are being rushed to meet not Afghan requirements but to meet the US election deadline," he said.
Political pundits say a victory for favorite President Hamid Karzai in the October election could give a boost to US President George W. Bush's international war on terrorism and enhance his chances against Democratic rival John Kerry in polls a month later.
"Some Afghans think that once President Karzai is elected, the United States would declare victory and shift resources to the war in Iraq and the country will plunge into complete chaos," Sarwawi said.
Afghan envoy in Washington Said Tayeb Jawad said US support for Afghanistan had been bipartisan and "we would like to keep it this way.
"We are looking into long term strategic relations with the US which go beyond particular administration or individual and we don't see any major changes in case of a change of administration in the US," he said.
Bush has told voters he needs a second four-year term "to complete the work" of turning Afghanistan and Iraq into prosperous democracies.