Afghanistan: The Forgotten War?

While Iraq is front and center, security experts worry Afghanistan is becoming the forgotten war. New reports from NATO military officers on the ground in Afghanistan say parts of the country are slipping into anarchy. Over the last four years, the number of insurgent attacks and deaths in Afghanistan has skyrocketed. "The stability and the level of security in the south is deteriorating pretty significantly," says Seth Jones, a nation-building and security expert at the RAND institute. Jones says the most important factors to rebuilding Afghanistan are resources and patience, both of which have been comprised because of Iraq. "A lot of the resources that might have gone into Afghanistan, that is the levels of troops or the amount of money, ended up being diverted as early as 2001, certainly 2002, to planning efforts for Iraq," says Jones. "It created a window of opportunity for the Taliban to stabilize themselves in the border regions."    The Pentagon maintains that both the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan can be won. Jones doesn’t disagree but says rebuilding Afghanistan has to be a long-term international priority, dependent on more than just the U.S. committing resources and troops. "Once an insurgency breaks out, it takes 14 years to win it," says Jones. "I think the United States can do it, so long as they get support from allied countries."