[For Zia's contact information, please call the MERIP office at +1-202-223-3677]

Mian commented: "Obama walked backwards into this decision, choosing to do more of the same -- send more guns and more money and hope things will work out for the best. The policymaking machine in Washington has been unable to generate any new options for him. The decision was made as if the US is the only player in Afghanistan, and Washington gets to decide what happens there. Afghanistan and its neighbors and NATO are now supposed to line up and help implement Washington's decision on Washington's timetable. But the people of Afghanistan and neighboring countries were not part of the decision-making process and they need to be involved more directly if there is to be an end to the conflict. It is not too late to use the 2010 London conference, which will involve some of these neighbors, and should include Iran, to make collective decisions about how to end the war in Afghanistan, including holding back the large US troop increase and ensuring that Afghanistan's neighbors work to ensure that the peace will hold."

Zia Mian is a physicist and director of the Project on Peace and Security in South Asia at Princeton University's Program on Science and Global Security.