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| Decades of fear & the reason to hope |
| Syed Nazir Ahmed Harifal |
| Afghans had seen too many decades of fear but they have not yet witnessed the cloud that has a silver lining for them. The devastating and gloomy clouds are still hovering over the land of Afghanistan. The president of the United States of America has announced the unilateral strategy for Afghanistan. The strategy contains a sentence which says that a people that had known decades of fear now had reason to hope. The Afghans do not see any reason to hope at all in the new strategy which is intended to change the life of the people in Afghanistan and bring stability to the region.
President Barack Obama said that it was in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan. After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home. Though the strategy was announced for Afghanistan but the vital national interests of Americans are the bona fide purpose. It does not care for the lives of the people in Afghanistan but designed to cater for the global interests of American nation. It may do well to them instead of protecting the downtrodden and impoverished populace in Afghanistan. The violence in Afghanistan gets momentum day by day since 2001 and that cannot be impeded within a short span of time as dreamt about by the intellectuals in the White House.
The history of Afghanistan’s political structure is in shambles since the invasion of Aryans in 2000 BC They were followed by the emergence of various ethnic and linguistic groups such as Persians, Greeks and Maurya with their rule in the country. Alexander the great defeated Persians and established his rule for a considerable period of time. Islamic conquest in 642 C.E by Arabs also had an unprecedented mark on the history of Afghanistan political set up. Hotaki and Durrani dynasties also exerted a great influence over the country. The then various ruling juntas did not produce a stable and sustainable political structure for the country.
The country remained unstable for various reasons. The reforms measure initiated during the period of Amanullah Khan and the reign of Nadir Shah and Zahir Shah did little to change the political landscape of the country. The lives of Afghans masses were not upgraded and developed. They remained unchanged and the conservatism prevailed on their thoughts which continued to be so. Afghanistan remained the subject of both US and Soviet bids for influence after 1945 i.e. the rise of bipolar world in international politics and the start of Cold War.
Afghanistan was a hot theatre in that era of international politics. The US was backing conservative resistance to tie down Soviet army. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran similarly supported anti-regime forces for religious, strategic and political reasons.
The Soviet intervention in 1980s further corroborated the problems of common masses and the country had become the dwelling of various militants groups. They were trained by Pakistan and various other states with the help of America for the Holy War meant to pull out Soviet forces out of Afghanistan. America had its own axe to grind in the defeat of the Soviet Union.
The justification for that is the reason that after the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan America did nothing for the people wounded and displaced by the war of others on their land. After the Soviet was withdrawn and the purpose of America’s foreign policy fulfilled Afghanistan became a playground among various warring groups. The destruction caused by them was immeasurable.
The political instability continued to flourish with full swing. The rise of Taliban militia in power at Afghanistan did an insurmountable damage to the country.
The inexperienced Taliban totally damaged and demoralized the political and social structure of Afghan society. The human rights of the people were violated and the business activities came to a standstill in the country. The transportation and communication system was disrupted too much that it was not possible to connect one corner of the country with the other. A good few people started migrating to Pakistan. The burden of refugees increased on Pakistan as she already had a lot of refugees who had come in 1980s.
The collapse of the twin towers in America on September 11, 2001 shocked many in the world. President Bush exerted much pressure on the leaders of the world, especially Pakistan, to side with America to wipe out Taliban’s regime and to arrest Osama bin Ladin and Mula Omar in Afghanistan. American President was successful in his attempt and even he was able enough to invoke article 5 of NATO alliance - the attack on one member nation is an attack on all.
The policy of preemption and unilateralism of neo-cons in America brought the US forces in Afghanistan in 2001. Taliban’s government was toppled down in Kabul and the NATO forces stared plunging into Afghanistan. Superficially it was told that Taliban and al-Qaeda pose a grave threat to the security of the world and their elimination from the map of the world is indispensable. The occupation and subjugation of a landlocked Afghanistan is in the vital national interest of America. Afghanistan can easily provide US with the land routes to the resource rich Central Asian Republics.
That strategic aim of the US foreign policy still affects the new strategies for Afghanistan and it would continue to do so. America does not have any concern for the damage caused to the public lives in Afghanistan but it cares much for the lives of Americans and their national interest. President Obama vividly told in his speech, made on the new strategy for Afghanistan, that if I did not think that the security of the US and the safety of the Americans people were at stake in Afghanistan, I would gladly order every single one of our troops home tomorrow. The Afghans people will hope for nothings but for fear once again looming large on their land with the arrival of the additional troops.
While criticising the strategy, an Afghan lawmaker Sukria Barakzi said it is a very good strategy, but for Americans and not for us. There are no words in the strategy for the protection of human rights or the development of democratic institutions in Afghanistan. Barakzi said that Obama should develop a long strategy on Afghanistan; the strategy announced by Obama creates a visible war threatening the Afghan people and government.
The first problem with the strategy is that it is unilaterally designed. Obama told in his speech that all the coalition partners in the war have been consulted and the strategy is planned after thorough negotiations. Pakistan is a front line state on the war on terror and is the most affected one as well. Various reports in newspapers show that Pakistan has not been even consulted on the new strategy.
The Foreign Minister of Pakistan Shah Mehmood Qureshi, while briefing the foreign affairs committee of NA said that the violence in Afghanistan will increase with the increasing number of American forces over there. He also said that we will not allow foreign forces to use our land for operation or drone attacks. Pakistan has also expressed its concerns over the issue that if American forces were deployed on the areas bordering Pakistan, the terrorists will once again infiltrate to the tribal regions of Pakistan where Pakistan military is at loggerheads with the terrorists. A report in the Guardian appeared few days back in which a former NATO officer had said that US forces had accomplished four secret land operations in Pakistan’s tribal area from 2003 to 2008 and only the previous year September incident was known and Pakistan vigorously protested that. The statements made in such a manner retard the progress being made in the war against terror. The unilateral stand of US and NATO forces over fighting the war may not succeed because it deals only with the one side of the problem. It seems that neither the wishes of the people in Pakistan nor Afghanistan is cared for in the newly planned strategy.
The second problem with the strategy is that it has cut the core issues of Afghans dead. Since the intervention of US in Afghanistan the focus is on the deployments of forces and aerial attacks. Those have damaged the civilian population a good deal. What the people want is education, healthcare and good governance in their motherland. Education can enable them to build up their country and bring stability to their dilapidated state. It is estimated by the US government that their cost will be 30 billion dollars for the military this year in Afghanistan.
They pay for military even the highest cost but do not give half a billion dollar to the education sector in Afghanistan. Yes, the security problems should be addressed but attention should also be paid to education and health. Good governance in Afghanistan is yet in limbo and the administration is all but inefficient in dealing with the issues of national importance.
The third problem which needs to be addressed is the Accountability of Afghan government. The lack of an effective accountability system has given rise to multidimensional problems such as corruption, poor governance, and weak response to drug problems, ineffective reconstruction, inefficient security and the surfacing of warlords. Opium cultivation and trafficking dominates economy at a record level which is both a source and symptom of ongoing insurgency. Afghanistan now accounts for 93 per cent of the world supply; it involves public officials and also provides funding to Taliban and insurgents groups.
Both the external and internal forces can be held responsible for the unfortunate political and economic condition of Afghanistan. The fortune of the masses can be changed if the relevant measures are adopted with seriousness and dogged determination.
The wounds of the people cannot be cured by sending troops which has already traumatized Afghan people. They expect education, excellent health facilities and flourishing business activities.
The decades of fear will not be eliminated with the barrel of gun and a hope for peace and prosperity cannot be originated in the massacre of innocent children. Well coordinated efforts on the part of Afghan government are to be adopted and supported by the coalition partners to deal completely with the emerging issues of human rights and bringing peace to the region.
harifalmasoom@yahoo.com |
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