The United State mission to conquer Afghanistan and defeat the Taliban has now completed a decade. Despite their involvement in it for ten years and having expended every effort necessary, they are still facing strict resistance and have completely failed in Afghanistan. The Taliban leaders issued a statement on the completion of ten years of the US in Afghanistan saying that due to the strong resistance of the Taliban fighters, the US had completely failed and was leaving from Afghanistan. The statement said that Americans had eliminated an ‘Islamic’ and ‘peaceful’ Taliban government in Afghanistan and handed over the government to those people who had now come to the end of their time.
The statement added that the Taliban fighters fight a sophisticated guerrilla war and after abandoning their power, had fled their military posts and melted away into the countryside. It also stated that they have achieved their goals and derailed American plans for a smooth and successful drawdown of troops. The US announced that they would be withdrawing their troops till 2014 and security matters would be given to the Afghan national army. The US has understood the difficult way that a completely military solution to the Afghan problem is not possible. Even after ten years, the Taliban are still defiant and Americans are no close to having a complete handle on the Afghan situation.
With the withdrawal of the US troops, it is necessary for the Afghan government to instil a national thinking among its people and unite all the groups on a single platform (including the Taliban) to come to a consensus about the future of Afghanistan. If they do not make a strategy and produce political will in the people and various political and militant groups, then the situation would not be much different from when the Russians left Afghanistan and they started fighting against each other.
-Translated from the original Pashto by Sajjad Ali
