• 
• 
• 

Like it or not, the international community will have to push the reset button with Afghan President Hamid Karzai's new government. But the new administration in Afghanistan would have to prove its credibility as well. Kabul can't carry on business as usual and it must show itself to be a worthy partner.

Likewise, the West has to go beyond the numbers game in its effort to recruit and train local security forces. Quantity has come at the expense of quality and the level of corruption and indifferent attitude of the police towards its citizens is a good example of this.

Perhaps it would be too much at this point in time to let bygones be bygones. But the upcoming international conference - a British-French-German initiative - for Afghanistan early next year is a step in the right direction as it would be an opportunity to renew the contract between the international community and the government in Kabul.

No doubt, Nato forces will continue to remain in Afghanistan for as long as necessary to secure the organisation's own interest and prevent the country from becoming a sanctuary for extremists intent on attacking the West.

As various capitals debate about how to move things forward with the new administration in Kabul, the United Nations is sending about 600 foreign staff out of the country or into secure compounds because of the deadly Taleban attack on UN workers.

The moves come as the Obama administration nears a decision on whether to send tens of thousands of more US troops to Afghanistan to try to curb the revival of the Taleban.

And while the Taleban can claim a psychological victory of some sort, the international community should come out and condemn the movement in strongest terms for the killings of UN personnel.

It has been repeatedly pointed out that the key ingredient for success in the battlefield is through aid and development works aimed at winning hearts and minds. The idea is to out-govern, not out-battle the insurgents.

Obviously, the Taleban figured this out and decided to kill the aid workers as a way to disrupt this effort.

But can the world afford to live with a failed Afghanistan? Can we afford to see it turn the clock back to the post-Soviet Afghanistan when relentless fighting paved the way for the rise of the Taleban and eventually al-Qaeda? The answer is clear. The challenge is how to move things forward and work collectively for the sake of Afghanistan and its people.