China Voices Concern over Afghan War

An article in the government-owned China Daily newspaper on Monday is worth taking a look at. Entitled "Afghan peace needs a map" it appears in the English-language version of the China Daily and is a rare example of sharply detailed opinion from a suppressed press.

It is credited to the deputy general of the China Council for National Security Policy Studies, Li Qinggong, and it proposes steps to be taken in ending the war in Afghanistan. The timing of this article is important because the international community is now intensely debating alternate scenarios for ending the war in Afghanistan.

NATO has all but confirmed that "winning" the conflict may no longer be possible and public opinion in the US has declined considerably during the past eight years. Congress has its doubts about the Obama administration's Afghan strategy, even though some members and most military advisers are pushing for an increase in troops and funds. And it seems that the Chinese government thinks it is time for the US policy makers to hear what they have to say.

Claiming that "Afghanistan's political and social turmoil has been aggravated by different intentions of the participating nations that constitute the coalition forces", the article calls for an immediate end to US military actions. It goes on to claim that; "The anti-terror war, which the former US administration of George W Bush launched in 2001, has turned out to be the source of ceaseless turbulence and violence in the past years", and "The war has neither brought the Islamic nation peace and security as the Bush administration originally promised, nor brought any tangible benefits to the US itself."

Afghan peace needs a map