Wrong Approach towards Afghan Conflict

 

Wrong Approach towards Afghan Conflict

 

Why is it believed that there cannot be peace in Afghanistan if US aka occupying forces withdraw?

Introduction and background:

There are a number of reasons for this but one of the most worrying of them is the approach of the current Afghan Govt. towards addressing the infighting. Since the inception of the Afghan Civil War in 1973. From 1973 to 1979 people of Afghanistan saw a secular and procommunist Govt. Since Islam was practiced as a state religion and true Islamic saints have lived in Afghanistan, the roots of fundamental Islam and the people adhering to it hoped for an Islamic Govt. With the advent of pro Communist leader, Babrak Kamal, Afghanistan started to receive changes to its constitution. This angered the practicing Muslims and other local elders who could not tolerate Communism.  The conflict of ideas and the imported ideology caused the infighting between the then Govt. and Muslims. In the forthcoming years, the then Afghanistan Govt. comes down hard on fundamentalists—practicing Muslims—and introduces secular and anti-Islamic laws in Afghanistan.

With Najib brought in power by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), surge in infighting was given coverage worldwide. There was another big actor who was hoping to contain the expansion of communism, the USA. In order to understand every single military/political conflict started between 1914 and 1990 in South Asia and Middle East, the pre and post history of Cold War needs to be read and analyzed. This was the time when every nation was offered with choices to make and one of the sides to opt for i.e. communist and capitalist blocs. However, taking sides and joining armies with either side benefitted no nation but the communist and capitalist.

Cold War: Blend of Proxy wars

Communist and Capitalist powers had a history of proxy wars against each other and domineering politics in the world. World Wars resulted in the bloodshed and with the end of the world wars another kind of war was set about, Cold War between USA and Russia. The events which contributed to the Cold war include USA’s dropping a bomb on Japan’s Hiroshima and Nagasaki in wake of the arm race and as a result the Japan siding with the Communist bloc. In 1949 USSR tested its first atomic bomb and the USA made NATO with the aim to defend member states against USSR and deter its expansion. This has made the group of nations her allies and partners against the USSR. Every nation that sided with USSR had to face the USA. Korea was the one divided against itself. In the North, pro-Russian and Chinese rulers started to reign and in the South, USA started to hold control of the Govt. and military.  The arm race went on and USA came up with Hydrogen Bomb in 1952. Pact of Warsaw was signed 1955 between Russia and seven other socialist republics as a result of creation of NATO. This treaty had two agendas to serve; political matters dealt with by Political Consultative Committee and military matters by Combined Command of Pact Armed Forces.

Communism vs Islam: War of the titans

The cold war remained in effect between 1956 Hungary revolts against USSR, the Suez Crisis. and 1987, the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed between USA President Ronald Reagan and Soviet’s General Secretary, Mikhail Gorbachev  with the aim to control arm race. This war never stopped. Chain of events remained in effect and the countries under siege by either bloc remained unstable, war torn and dependent on military and economic aid. Afghanistan remained under the influence of Soviet Union between 1973 and 1986. The USA’s containment of Soviet Union never ended and she had to find an excuse to get into Afghanistan and install pro US Govt. For the purpose, they had to use spies, foreign armies, and militia against Soviet Union.  The religion card was on top of the list, so it was put into practice against communist.

Since Afghanistan had forces who from the day one tried their utmost to overthrow any Govt. that did not work towards bringing an Islamic Govt. in Afghanistan. They were locally called the Taliban. They included teachers and pupils of the seminaries situated inside and outside Afghanistan.  They fought the Soviet Union on every front but were outnumbered by both Afghan army and armed forces of Soviet Union. USA saw this an opportunity to penetrate their trained CIA agents and supply them with modern missiles. A kind of missiles techonolgy, the FIM-92 Stinger missiles, the Taliban did not know of proved to be effective against the Soviet. The Taliban started to attack Soviet forces using military equipment transported by USA.  The infighting between the procommunist Afghan Govt. and Islamists continued for almost 20 years and ended with the collapse of USSR.

The Taliban defeated Soviet and caused the disintegration of USSR. Those powers who supported Taliban against Russia did not wish to see Afghanistan being run by an Islamic group. From 1996 to 2001, the newly emerged power, the Taliban controlled almost three quarters of Afghanistan and established an Islamic Govt. This Govt. was solely based on Islamic Shariah and it shunned off all un-Islamic practices and replaced secular rules and laws etc.

A Little White Lie: US for Taliban

The USA helped Taliban defeat the former Soviet because of the fact that they wanted to contain communist’s expansion and install capitalist and pro American Govt., which did not happen. The international community criticized the USA for supporting Taliban, an Islamist group. Both the communist and capitalist blocs were now at a cross road whether to directly take on the Taliban and or leave. Since Taliban held on to the Shariah and they only listened to people affiliated with Islam, the USA decided to use the religion card to get into Afghanistan. A man named Usama Bin Ladin mysteriously appeared on the world’s stage. He was a Saudi National who owned companies and was rich. He was portrayed as a blunt enemy of the USA.  It was alleged that he had links with the Al Qaida’s top leaders. It was also alleged that he trained jihadists who hijacked American passenger planes and crashed them into the World’s Trade Center on 11^th September, 2011.

 

This incident resulted in killing of 2,996 and injured 6000 people.  This was an unprecedented national crisis which shock the entire America. Usama Bin Ladin who was alleged to have planned these attacks and who was alleged to be hiding in Afghanistan, recorded videos and claimed responsibility of the attacks. The state of affairs in Afghanistan and USA were in total shambles as the Taliban neither could abandon a Muslim who sought shelter in their country nor deny his existence after the Usama’s confessional video. It is alleged that the 9/11 attacks were planned by CIA and the people who took part in it were CIA trained militia, this remained a mystery until now.

Killing two birds with one stone: War on Terror vs Replacing Communists

The USA saw this an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. They turned to the international community, chiefly to her allies for support and approval to wage war on the Taliban and the attackers who were in Afghanistan.  The USA made her choice and attacked the Taliban  on 7th October, 2001 killing approximately 300 civilians. Initially, the USA sent 1000 of their highly trained troops to Afghanistan which culminated to almost 10,000 by Dec, 2003. According to US Central Command Combined Air Operation Centre, since 2009 the USA dropped almost 7,423 bombs on Afghan's soil to which 100,000 innocent souls lost their live. The Taliban who were declared as a legitimate Govt. by countries of South Asia were now at war with the capitalists. Taliban went into hiding and USA placidly took over Afghanistan declaring it a victory over Al Qaida.

The invasion of Afghanistan was solely opposed by Russia and her allies and neighboring countries of Afghanistan. Neighboring countries of Afghanistan i.e. Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan etc., were not ready to give their bases to American for the purpose, however, Pakistan whose economy was in shambles, who was undergoing political unrest was bulldozed to allow foreign troops on her soil against Afghanistan. Other countries including Iran and Tajikistan etc. were not influenced by USA former was her stark enemy and the latter was controlled by the former Soviet Union.  So, Pakistan was promised military and economic aid and was forced to help USA against Taliban. This invasion was labeled War on Terror and USA poured her armies into Afghanistan. NATO, the US allies also took part in this war and joined forces with USA against Taliban.

 Smoke and Mirrors: Taliban remained unsubdued and the USA also won.

The war on Terror has long been concluded by NATO and USA in Middle East handing over the power to democratic forces, however, the countries remain in sheer political and economic chaos. The talks of ending the wars throughout the globe was first started by Mr. Donald Trump the former US President. His policies were exclusively different and aggressive towards the allies and enemies of America.  His policies in respect of Afghanistan also received massive shifts. He has been credited with sanity and sensibility towards the US wars which ate up about $6.4 trillion in US sponsored wars in the Middle East alone and $2.26 trillion spent in Afghan war so far.

Trump’s Administration came up with the proposal to end all wars involving American funds and troops. The corporate sector did not welcome this decision and voted him out in the next election. With the new administration in place, the Biden as the President, after perusal started to follow up the decisions took by Trump’s administration with regards to Afghanistan’s question. The world, chiefly Russians and her allies, do not seize to outpace American in military and trade wars. This is the only reasons why America’s two Governments brought drastic changes to the US foreign policy towards Middle East and Afghanistan. The USA is now seeking to overpower her allies in trade and technological advancement, which is up to some extent a good sign for the region as well as for the rest of the world.  However, rebuilding the nations, whereat the proxy wars took place, yet to be paid heed to by both communist and capitalist blocs. Countries in the Middle East and South Asia look up to the world powers to help them rebuild their infrastructure, economy, military etc.

Wrong Approach towards Afghan Conflict: Afghan Govt. behaves like USA and USSR.

Time has changed. The world is changing for better. Technological advancement has revolutionized the weaker nations to the degree that they can now kick with the super powers of the world. Such as the United Arab Emirates, Norway, Luxembourg, Qatar etc. It is also believed that the nuclear powers around the world are lagging behind in development such as Pakistan, India etc., which also is a sign that the world has changed for better. Exploding unclear power is out of the question in our time, however, using nuclear capability for revolutionizing industries such as agriculture, food, medicine, power, automobiles, transport etc., of a country is what nuclear powers should be working upon.

The point here made is, the current Afghan Government’s approach towards handling the unrest is flawed. Even if the USA and USSR were addressing this matter, they would have also not hired local warlords and militia to fight Taliban and set their dead on fire. It is as if there some individual on the helm of affairs who do not want to see a prosperous Afghanistan. The Afghan Govt. should have prevented infighting between the local militia and Taliban and established writ of the Govt. at least in the areas held by Govt. There was a research work presented by Gilles Dorronsoro in 2009 which was based on the winning strategy of Taliban and the poor approach of the then Govt. towards handling the affairs. His major emphasis was that the then Govt. was weak and miserable to the degree that a parallel Govt. was formed by the militia in the North which neither approved Taliban nor allowed the writ of the central Govt. in the North. Now, the same mistake is being repeated by the current Govt.

Conclusively, until and unless Afghanistan's Govt. does the following there is no hope for a peaceful Afghanistan:

-Say no to local warlords and militia sabotaging peace deal

-Say No to foreign intervention in Afghanistan

-Say No to political and military aid aiming to keep Afghanistan contested

-Table talk with the emerging Taliban, working on a power sharing formula

-Make foreign troops withdraw from Afghanistan immediately.