Skip to main content

Steps United States Must Take To Stabilise Afghanistan


By Sikander Hayat


New York Times reported recently that Pakistani spies are tacitly supporting the insurgent elements in Afghanistan to destabilise the current government. This reports highlights a very important factor which has been ignored so far. We are currently witnessing a bitter cold war between India and Pakistan in Afghanistan and until we have a resolution to this issue no amount of American or NATO effort will stabilise Afghanistan.



Americans must understand that their efforts are destined to fail if they do not take into account the considerations of the Pakistanis regarding Indian meddling in that country. For ages, Pakistan has considered Afghanistan as a friend who will defend it in case there was an invasion from the East. The greatest testament to this notion is the Azad Kashmir which was captured from India by the Afghan tribal army in 1948. Any Indian involvement in Afghanistan is viewed with suspicion in Pakistan and relatively recent development of diplomatic posts established by India all along the border with Pakistan are seen as India’s try to destabilise Pakistan.




During the war waged by the Mujahedeen (with the help of West) against the Soviets, India supported the Soviets and lost eventually when Geneva convention was signed by the warring parties and the red army left Afghanistan. After the soviets left the country, India started supporting the puppet regime of Najib Ullah, which was installed in Kabul by the Soviet Union after they left Afghanistan. India lost again when this regime was thrown out by the Mujahedeen. After that India started supporting the Northern Alliance and India lost again when it was driven out of Kabul by the Taliban. And now India is once supporting the eventual losers by backing grouping of Tajiks & Uzbeks in the hope that no Pashtun dominated government will come back and India will continue to call shorts in Afghanistan.

The most important question is this; can all Taliban be defeated. Taliban are Pashtun and one cannot fight and win against an entire ethnic group. In Iraq, America has not won but merely handed over power to most powerful reality on the ground i.e. Shia majority in most parts of the country and Sunnis in the central Iraq. What America has done in Iraq has to be replicated in Afghanistan to have some hope for peace and that is to hand over the power to the most powerful current and historical entity on the ground i.e. Pashtuns. The rest will take care of itself.




US must understand that Afghanistan cannot be stabilised until

1. India, which is not a neighbour of Afghanistan and is only there to cause irritation for Pakistan, is told to leave Afghanistan

2. Levers of power in Afghanistan are taken from the Tajiks/Uzbeks and given back to Pashtun majority who have always ruled Afghanistan

3. Jobs are created in the Pashtun belt of Afghanistan & Pakistan

4. Local culture and sensibilities are respected

These are just the starting steps but the most important ones as well.

New York Times Report A New Alliance Between Pakistani & Afghan Taliban

It seems that New York Times knows more about Taliban than even the Taliban know about themselves. The reports from New York Times about AfPak region always cite anonymous sources for their stories and there is a rising suspicion that these stories are usually based in rumours and not facts. Granted Taliban are a menace and needs to be dealt with but reconfiguring the truth to support an argument does not make for a good strategy. There may be a need for a reputed publication like New York Times to start giving some evidence as well for their reports so that truth does not become a casualty of this war.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Siege - A Poem By Ahmad Faraz Against The Dictatorship Of Zia Ul Haq

Related Posts: 1.  Did Muhammad Ali Jinnah Want Pakistan To Be A Theocracy Or A Secular State? 2. The Relationship Between Khadim & Makhdoom In Pakistan 3. Battle for God; Battleground Pakistan - a time has finally come to call a spade a spade 4. Pakistan - Facing Contradictory Strategic Choices In An Uncertain Region 5. Pakistan, Islamic Terror & General Zia-Ul-Haq 6. Why Pakistan Army Must Allow The Democracy To Flourish In Pakistan & Why Pakistanis Must Give Democracy A Chance? 7. A new social contract in Pakistan between the Pakistani Federation and its components 8. Birth of Bangladesh / Secession of East Pakistan & The Sins of Our Fathers 9. Pakistan Army Must Not Intervene In The Current Crisis - Who To Blame For the Present Crisis in Pakistan ? 10. Balochistan - Troubles Of A Demographic Nature

India: The Terrorists Within

A day after major Indian cities were placed on high alert following blasts in the IT city of Bangalore, as many as 17 blasts ripped through Ahmedabad, capital of the affluent western Indian state of Gujarat . Some 30 people were killed, some at hospitals where bombs were timed to go off when the injured from other blasts were being brought in. (Later, in Surat, a center for the world's diamond industry, a bomb was defused near a hospital and two cars packed with explosives were found in in the city's outskirts.) Investigators pointed fingers at the usual Islamist suspects: Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Bangladesh- based Harkat-ul Jihadi Islami (HUJI) and the indigenous Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). But even as the police searched for clues, the Ahmedabad attacks were owned up by a group calling itself the " Indian Mujahideen. " Several TV news stations received an email five minutes before the first blasts in Ahmedabad. The message repo

Mir Chakar Khan Rind - A Warrior Hero Of Baluchistan & Punjab Provinces of Pakistan

By Sikander Hayat The areas comprising the state of Pakistan have a rich history and are steeped in the traditions of martial kind. Tribes which are the foundation stone of Pakistan come from all ethnic groups of Pakistan either they be Sindhi, Balochi, Pathan or Punjabi. One of these men of war & honour were Mir Chakar Khan Rind. He is probably the most famous leader coming out of Baloch ethnic group of Pakistan. Mir Chakar Khan Rind or Chakar-i-Azam (1468 – 1565 ) was a Baloch king and ruler of Satghara in (Southern Pakistani Punjab) in the 15th century. He is considered a folk hero of the Baloch people and an important figure in the Baloch epic Hani and Sheh Mureed. Mir Chakar lived in Sibi in the hills of Balochistan and became the head of Rind tribe at the age of 18 after the death of his father Mir Shahak Khan. Mir Chakar's kingdom was short lived because of a civil war between the Lashari and Rind tribes of Balochistan. Mir Chakar and Mir Gwaharam Khan Lashari, hea