Australian Prime Minister Julian Gillard has announced that her country will withdraw its troops from Afghanistan much before the NATO set deadline. Though NATO and the United States have set a deadline of 2014 to complete the withdrawal from the war-torn country but apparently the process has started much earlier than anticipated.
This shows frustration on the part of coalition partners as present day situation in Afghanistan shows that whatever they achieved in last one decade has gone the drain – Taliban are strong enough to attack the so-called security zone in Kabul, not to mention their achievements in other cities and rural areas, war lords are as powerful as before, corruption is rampant, poppy cultivation is going unabated, whatever they built in the name of national army and police force seem to be disinterested in combating Taliban and often infiltrated by Taliban and their sympathizers.
In short, West is going to leave Afghanistan for the second time in last 25 years but again departing without establishing any socio-political structure who can steer the country in 21st century. It’s very unfortunate that we are going to see increased lawlessness in the area which will directly impact the neighbouring countries.
Triumphant militants who take pride in fighting and defeating the British and the Soviets will not settle down after the withdrawal of coalition forces; instead will go for settling score with those who sided with the invading forces. We see increased tension in Afghanistan when the majority Pakhtun who had been kept outside of political setup since 9/11, are going to put a check on the so-called Northern Alliance and ethnic groups this alliance represents.
Things are not very bright in coming days – April 15 attack on Kabul in Afghanistan and Bannu jailbreak in Pakistan are just a trailer of an action movie soon to be screened in South Asia.
MASOOD KHAN
Jubail, Saudi Arabia