That the Kabul ceremony marking
the official closure of Nato`s mission in Afghanistan should have been held in
secret speaks volumes for the end-result of America`s 13-year war in that
country. The war cost nearly a trillion dollars and human lives whose number is
yet to be assessed. Launching Operation Enduring Freedom on Oct 7, 2001, in the
wake of 9/11, former president George Bush Jr. said the aim was to stamp out Al
Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban. He believed he would succeed because America was
`supported by the collective will of the world`. Thirteen years later, the
bloodshed and destruction dominate far more than Washington`s military
successes. The Taliban have not been beaten, America`s diplomatic somersault
adding to their leadership`s morale. Having for years denounced the Taliban
using the choicest adjectives, the US entered into `secret` talks with them in
Doha without being clear about its goals. Then, as the end of the drawdown
neared, the Pentagon announced it would not target Mullah Omar, the man whose
head had a prize, and other Taliban so long as they didn`t pose `a direct
threat` to the US. Now President Ashraf Ghani and his advisers should join heads
to wonder whether an attack on Afghan security forces and civilian targets falls
within the category of `a direct threat` to the 12,000 troops the Pentagon has
left behind.
Speaking at the ceremony held in a gymnasium, Isaf commander Gen John Campbell
declared, `We have lifted the Afghan people out of the darkness of despair and
given them hope for the future`. The reality is the Afghan people were probably
never in greater despair than they are now, and the hope the general talked
about appears nowhere on the horizon. Instead, a bigger and more frightening
question mark hangs over the country`s future. Is the `system` America has left
behind capable of survival, stamping out militancy and launching Afghanistan`s
post-war reconstruction? Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai, on whom the
Americans relied for 13 years in a vain attempt to give democracy and stability
to Afghanistan, was seen as corrupt and inefficient. He lacked the qualities
expected of a wartime leader who could bring his country`s disparate ethnic
groups together, effect a grand reconciliation and heal the wounds of war to
pave the way for a peaceful post-America Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is just one milestone in America`s foreign misadventures. Despite
commanding enormous economic, military and technological power, US actions
created chaos in Libya and Iraq, throwing both into anarchy the fundamentalist
forces were quick to exploit. The Taliban also gained from the trust deficit
between Pakistan and America. The least Washington can do now is to strike some
understanding with Afghanistan`s neighbours, especially Islamabad, to ensure
peace and a semblance of political order in a country that has been a war
theatre for more than three decades.
The writer is student of law and political science based in Peshawar and author
on national and international politics as well as urdu short story writer.