American Claim of Victory in Afghanistan

It was only few days after 9/11 that the strongest nation on earth declared a full fledge war with the support of its EU and non-EU allies on Afghanistan. Afghanistan was governed at that time by Talibans. It was a war between a country that had most sophisticated war technology and billions of dollars investment each year on defence against a country that had no formal army, no air force, no heavy artillery and no missile technology. This war is still going on even after a decade has passed. In last few days, US President Obama announced that US is starting to pull out its troops from Afghanistan meaning a beginning to the end of this decade long war.

Two questions can be asked at this moment (announcement of US troops withdrawal). One is that whether US has won this war? Is USA a safe place post 9/11 as compared to pre 9/11? Well the answer to the first question is straight away NO and the announcement to pull out American troops from Afghanistan is just a political move to win a favourable position for President Obama for 2012 elections. When a decade ago, US launched an attack on Afghanistan, they succeeded in removing the Talibans from government but what else they gained. Talibans moved away from Kabul and are still fighting with the same passion as they were in 2001. The current government of President Hamid Karzai has no control even on 50 percent of Afghanistan. In fact the position of Talibans is much stronger now as US has accepted to negotiate with them. This means that these Talibans will play a role in the future of Afghanistan. Then what was the purpose of spending billions of dollars on this war if at the end one has to again give the future of Afghanistan to the same people against whom they launched this war? What is the point of killing thousands of civilians when you at the end will give power in the same hands whom you removed from government? Why not these billions of dollars were invested on the well being of Afghanistan rather than on a war which gained you nothing but shook your own economy from bottom to top plus thousands of casualties at US part? Today Talibans still have control on many provinces of Afghanistan and the country itself has economically gone many years back because of this war. Imagine what difference it would have on people of Afghanistan if only 25 percent of the amount spent on war would have actually been spent on people.

Second question is that is USA safer today than pre 9/11? NO. Today majority of Muslims hate USA because of its aggressive and unjust strategies. Even if we exclude the Muslim nations, people from within USA are now involved in these terrorist activities. Many terror plots have been foiled from within USA. Besides this, look at Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Somalia and many other Muslim countries. People in all of these countries hate USA. Now if so many people hate USA then how come one thinks that USA is a safe place to live today? It is true that US successfully killed Osama Bin Laden but does that make this world or US safer. The ideology is still there. Al-Qaeda is now seeking revenge from US and its allies over the death of its leader. The way Osama Bin Laden’s death was handled; many in Muslim countries now consider him as a hero. And of course there is no shortage of people who will follow his ideology. Will they forgive US? Never.

Therefore, the government and especially people of US should realize that they have not won this war. The actual war is not won through battlefields, one has to pursue justly policies and respect others. Only then you will be a safe place to live. Otherwise, get ready for many more 9/11s to come.

Criticizing...Criticizing...Criticizing

Pakistan is passing through its most difficult time which will surely decide that what kind of future it will have. On one hand we have extremism and terrorism while on the other hand we have corruption, lawlessness and weak economy. The only institute which was stable in the history of Pakistan was armed forces of Pakistan and now even that institute is being pushed to the wall but unfortunately by our own people.

I am not a blind supporter of army. I also know that there are blunders (Lal Masjid, Balochistan operation, Kharotabad incident, intelligence failure on Osama Bin Laden, PNS attack and killing of young boy in Karachi) done by our armed forces. But does that mean that each and everything they have done is wrong? NO. What should be the behaviour of an educated person? How they should behave in this situation? I feel very terrible when I see that our educated persons put blame for each and everything on army. One should look into the whole picture and present their views based on realities. We should criticize our armed forces where they were wrong like the incidents mentioned above but at the same time we should also point out the positive effects we have on our country due to our armed forces.

Our armed forces are not angels. People in these institutes are human and they also err. We should hold accountable to them for their mistakes but this accountability and criticism should be positive. Abusing armed forces will not fix our issues. We are an independent state because of these soldiers. Otherwise how many of us would volunteer to go just for one day in Sianchin and defend the borders. It is quite easy to sit in air condition rooms and criticize.

People are saying that our armed forces and agencies should be under civilian control. Well as a matter of fact, they already are according to the law. Now if these people (President and Prime Minister of Pakistan) are not capable of handling or controlling the armed forces then why to blame forces for that. We all know that how pure our political leaders are. I am also of the view that armed forces should only defend the borders of Pakistan but then who will defend our country internally? Are our politicians fit for this job? No not at all. So first our politicians should show that they have the capabilities to run this country then I am with all those who say that armed forces should be strictly under civilian control. If one argues that current leadership should handle our institutions (armed forces), then I must disagree over the capabilities of our current political regime.

Whether it is a natural disaster like earthquake, flood or any war, it was our armed forces that helped this nation not our political regime. So we should highlight the positive steps of our army and criticize and hold accountable to them as well for their wrong doings.