A page that just won't turn

US President Barack Obama hopes to turn over a new leaf, scaling down the American presence in Afghanistan with a view to a complete pullout by 2014. That also goes for the Spanish contingent of 1,550 soldiers, and the rest of the Western force. But the Taliban insurrection has not taken the hint. Only a few hours after a suicide attack in the east of the country caused dozens of deaths, a private of Colombian origin and a sergeant from the Spanish contingent died when a bomb exploded under their vehicle. On the 18th of this month, in an almost identical incident, four Spanish soldiers were wounded ? two seriously ? and another attack, also suicidal, resulted in nine dead in a police station in Kabul.

Since the beginning of the war in the fall of 2001, when the Western contingent and its auxiliary Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban regime with deceptive ease, the US force ? now 100,000 strong ? has sustained 1,500 fatal casualties. The Spanish troops have suffered a proportionally much higher figure of fatalities with 96 dead (81 in accidents, 13 in armed attacks and two by natural causes). Moreover there is an important difference between one case and the other. The Americans are there on a combat mission, in reprisal for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, perpetrated by Al Qaeda from its refuge in Afghanistan; while NATO, which includes the Spanish force, is there on a mission of stabilization and reconstruction of the country, under a UN mandate.

But so subtle a distinction is lost on the Taliban, who are fighting against President Karzai's regime ? widely accused of corruption and election-rigging ? and its Western protectors.

The Spanish government also expects to wind up its military presence in Afghanistan in the relatively far-off year of 2014; but while the personal tragedy is the same in any case, this is a particularly poor moment, after the ruling Socialist Party's painful defeat in last month's local elections and the hardships of the economic crisis, to accept two more deaths. Voices from the left are calling for an immediate end to the mission which, after Washington's announcement, is hard to defend; while the leader of the Popular Party, Mariano Rajoy, is responsibly demanding recognition of the two fallen soldiers' valor and service to Spain. To suppose, however, as the United States is doing, that the war is almost won and that it is time to go home, is an exercise in wishful thinking. It has to be ended, but without fooling ourselves.

If the NATO mission is one of political normalization of the Afghan state, and of reconstruction of the country, it is obvious that what has not been done so far is hardly going to be accomplished in another couple of years. Defense Minister Carme Chacón on Sunday night flew to Afghanistan in an appropriate gesture. But it is the timetable of withdrawal that has to be the object of careful consideration. So that it will not last a day longer than necessary.