Getting out of the Afghan quagmire

"It's still hard", headlines Tageszeitung. In the light of Barack Obama's Afghanistan strategy - "which isn't one", the Berlin daily quips - an editorial calls for the building of a genuine state in Afghanistan. While an international conference is being held in London on the country's future, the TAZ points out that if there is no solution soon, the country will remain a theatre of proxy war as it was in the 19th and 20th centuries. "This is where the decision as to who will play a significant role among the regional powers will be taken. Autocratic China or democratic India? What about Russia? A nuclear-armed Iran will change the balance of power in the Middle East forever." The newspaper suggests "talking about a new constitution" that would give more autonomy to the provinces, because "the presidential constitution imposed on the country in 2002 under American pressure does not sufficiently take the country's history or structures into account."