Afghanistan: End Game

Peter Hopkirk writes in his phenomenal work “The Great Game”, describing the imperialistic intrusions of great western powers Germany, the United Kingdom and Russia in the central Asian countries specifically Afghanistan. He says the British army comprising 16,000 soldiers suffered a humiliating defeat in 1842 in which entire British contingent was wiped out except a medical doctor who succeeded in reaching the last British garrison town of Jalalabad, located near Pakistan border. He was intentionally left alive to tell the tale. It took around 10 years to the unreliable and fiercely independence Afghanis to expel the British.
Basing our argument on this historical defeat, it can be said that the coalition forces in Afghanistan are almost ready to leave at any moment provided the opposite forces the Taliban, Al-Qa’ida and other Islamic outfits let them leave with honor. It is not that the United States has faced defeat, but the fact remains that the US economy has been constantly on the decline and its troops feeling tired after fighting an elusive enemy for last 11 years and finding victory nowhere. The constant massacre of Afghan public through NATO air strikes, often dubbed as a mistake, a collateral damage or friendly firing, the frustration of the US and NATO troops, the havoc caused by the improvised explosive devices to the NATO troops and the alleged Pakistani freehand to the Taliban to use independence tribal belt have been some of the factors, leading to this face saving exit that does not seem nearing.
The problem with Afghan end game as thought by the United States is that the United States has come to the point where it has no other option except to talk to the Taliban. Its very presence in Afghanistan, military mistakes and killing of civilians have strengthened the Taliban elements rather than weakening them. They are now more capable of striking at the NATO troops anywhere in the southern and eastern regions including Kabul. Their audacious attacks at the start of this month in the capital city of Kabul, attacks on coalition troops in Helmand provinces and sporadic killings of the NATO trainers, have forced the NATO allies to hasten this draw down without any feasible plan. Though Obama’s surprising Kabul visit, NATO summit in Chicago and US-Karzai strategic agreement show a lot about the NATO planning to keep future Afghanistan safe from the Taliban, yet it defies reality. A US local newspaper attacked Obama for humiliating Pakistan president over NATO supply route opening in Chicago after he refused to meet Pakistani president. The truth is that the United States would not have entered Afghanistan without explicit and implicit Pakistani support and it cannot leave it honorably without doing the same. Pakistan is the key to success in Afghanistan and former Pakistan president Gen [ret] Musharraf repeatedly asked Bush to resolve outstanding issues causing unrest among the Muslim youths. This was a viable option to end extremism and resultant end of the Taliban extremist ideology. However, this piece of advice was ignored and Kashmir and Palestine continued to simmer.
Now the United States is behaving quite arrogantly and leaving Pakistan out of its devised Afghan end game plan. It is suspected that instead of stabilizing Afghanistan, it will once again leave this terror den at the mercy of the warlords and terrorists to come to power, let them tout their ideology as the only liberating force, and rally the disenchanted youths around them to take upon the western supporters in the Islamic world.

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