By Sikander Hayat
I am not saying that it is the start of the Tet offensive but this is major indeed. Militants striking at the heart of Kabul at about 100 yards from the presidential palace, where Hamid Karzai was going to take oaths from the new ministers, is an attack to send message to the United States that Afghan Taliban are still strong and able to mount headline grabbing attacks. This also signals towards a worrying development and that is the presence of Taliban sympathisers in Kabul. Nearly 20 men stayed in Kabul for days if not weeks planning this attack. They were fed, housed and armed by the people from within the city. This is worrying indeed for the NATO & US forces as this attack came just after the attack which killed 7 CIA operatives in Khost. Add this attack to the fact that there almost daily deaths among the coalition soldiers and the picture becomes even more disquieting.
This attack also shows that Afghanistan is not ready to be left alone to its own devices just yet. If United States does leave in the foreseeable future, the Karzai government will crumble like a house of cards and this Afghan army which is being built at a considerable expense will other desert or defect to the Taliban.
It is time that a parallel strategy is devised for weaning Taliban away from al-Qaida and letting them know that they have a major stake in the future governance of Afghanistan. After all Taliban are part of the Pakhtun
majority and are not very happy with the present set up in which all the major levers of power are in the hands of non Pakhtuns & corrupt war lords with a token Pakhtun on the top.
Related Posts:
1.Why United States Must Not Attack Quetta – Lessons From Vietnam
2.America Will Start Leaving Afghanistan in June 2011 – Implications of Initial Surge & Eventual Withdrawal On Pakistan?
3.War In Afghanistan – Looking For Way Out
I am not saying that it is the start of the Tet offensive but this is major indeed. Militants striking at the heart of Kabul at about 100 yards from the presidential palace, where Hamid Karzai was going to take oaths from the new ministers, is an attack to send message to the United States that Afghan Taliban are still strong and able to mount headline grabbing attacks. This also signals towards a worrying development and that is the presence of Taliban sympathisers in Kabul. Nearly 20 men stayed in Kabul for days if not weeks planning this attack. They were fed, housed and armed by the people from within the city. This is worrying indeed for the NATO & US forces as this attack came just after the attack which killed 7 CIA operatives in Khost. Add this attack to the fact that there almost daily deaths among the coalition soldiers and the picture becomes even more disquieting.
This attack also shows that Afghanistan is not ready to be left alone to its own devices just yet. If United States does leave in the foreseeable future, the Karzai government will crumble like a house of cards and this Afghan army which is being built at a considerable expense will other desert or defect to the Taliban.
It is time that a parallel strategy is devised for weaning Taliban away from al-Qaida and letting them know that they have a major stake in the future governance of Afghanistan. After all Taliban are part of the Pakhtun
majority and are not very happy with the present set up in which all the major levers of power are in the hands of non Pakhtuns & corrupt war lords with a token Pakhtun on the top. Related Posts:
1.Why United States Must Not Attack Quetta – Lessons From Vietnam
2.America Will Start Leaving Afghanistan in June 2011 – Implications of Initial Surge & Eventual Withdrawal On Pakistan?
3.War In Afghanistan – Looking For Way Out
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