Jessica Mathews, the President of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a prominent Washington-based think tank has warned, the situation in Afghanistan is not getting better as Taliban is becoming stronger and the Karzai government weaker. She said, a lull in fighting there during the harsh winter is likely, but violence will pick back up. Ms Mathews said, this will be a tougher and tougher problem. As members of the coalition leave, the United States will have to pick up more of the slack. Despite talk of a drawdown, this reality may mean instead that there is a request for more funds and forces.

She argued, whereas Afghanistan was the heart of global terror 10 years ago, it isn’t today adding that in many ways, it’s much harder to deal with the threat when terrorists are operating out of 15 or 20 countries, rather than a small handful. She said, there are countries like Yemen those offers a welcoming environment for terrorists to operate.