Seth G. Jones, In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan,W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 2010, pp. 430, ISBN 978-0-393-33851-5 (paperback
Forrest E. Morgan, C. Christine Fair, Keith Crane, Christopher S. Chivvis, Samir Puri, and Michael Spirtas, Can United States Secure an Insecure State, RAND Corporation, US, 2010, pp. 232, ISBN 978-0-8330-4807-3 (paperback)
There is no cause for dismay over a growing sense of marginalisation of India in regional and international forums on the Afghan issue. Similarly, the resurgence of the Taliban and increasing Pakistani influence in Afghanistan should be seen as a temporary phenomenon. Sushant Sareen is right in arguing that the ‘turn of events’ in the ‘not so distant future’ could open up possibilities of India playing a larger role in Afghanistan.
There is really never any endgame in Afghanistan and what might appear to be one today will, in all likelihood, be nothing more than the closing of one chapter and the opening of another. Therefore Chandra's contention that the war in Afghanistan has a long way to go is incontestable, and it is in this context that India's options will always remain alive.
Responding to Dr. Vishal Chandra's article ‘India in the Afghan Maze: Search for Options’ allows me the opportunity to update and improve upon the suggestions I had made in my commentary ‘Af-Pak and India's Options in Afghanistan’ (Strategic Analysis, 34(5), 2010, pp. 683–689).
Although General David Petraeus emphatically stated that the United States of America is not in Afghanistan to lose the war, the fact remains that the decade-long war on terror against the Taliban and shadow boxing the al Qaida has lost its aim and purpose, reaching levels of absurdity at a cost of over a trillion dollars and yet the US will not win the war! Every effort of General Petraeus to win will only escalate the conflict and that is not in the best interests of Afghanistan and the US.
