Since the end of the war in Afghanistan, the Afghans, the United Nations and relief agencies have been crying themselves hoarse that there were too few international peacekeeping troops to maintain law and order and insufficient resources and funding to rebuild the shattered economy and infrastructure.

Having failed the Afghans in 2001, it is again the job of the international to come up with sufficient troops, resources and money that can give the Afghan government and people the confidence that the country will not be allowed to become a failed state. The five year long window of opportunity which the Afghan people have given the international community cannot be squandered any longer.

It is also vital that the U.S. and NATO develop a political strategy with a carrot and stick that will pressurize Pakistan's military regime to cease hosting the Taliban leadership and stop them from using Pakistan as a logistics and recruiting base. Having delivered more resources to the Afghan government, the international community will then have the credibility to tell President Hamid Karzai to get tough with the warlords and drug smugglers and get them out of government. It is still not too late because the Taliban has nothing to offer the Afghan people except more war and violence but the international community has to move fast.

More by Ahmed Rashid here.

See responses from Bashir Goth, Mahmoud Sabit and MJ Akbar on how to salvage Afghanistan.