- Failure on all fronts
Saturday’s ambulance-bomb massacre in Kabul, days after the Taliban stormed the city’s famous Intercontinental Hotel and killed more than 20 people, yet again underscored the war effort’s total failure on all fronts. The Americans, since they own this war, must also take the biggest share of responsibility. And the Trump Administration, despite its tough talk and tougher tweets, has just not provided any fresh direction, or initiative, to wind down this long war. The Afghans, even after all these years, struggle to extend their writ beyond the core of the capital. The Taliban, too, defeat their own position favouring talks by a very early and potent, Spring Offensive this year.
Yet the spotlight, inevitably, will come to settle on Pakistan. Trump’s immediate reaction, despite naming no names, contained all the adjectives he likes to use for Islamabad, especially when the Taliban make headlines. And, once again, by fixating on the wrong side of the Durand Line, Washington will choose to remain blind to the real reasons for the Taliban’s successes. After all, if Pakistan’s leverage over the militia were indeed as wholesome as the US believes, surely it would not advocate an escalation in violence just when the coalition has singled it out for supporting the rebellion.
Sadly, none of the principal parties in the fight against terrorism seem in any mood to learn any lessons. Throughout the war Kabul and Washington have blamed Islamabad for their failures even as a network of proxies and agencies accommodated and supported the TTP on their side of the border for years. Also, nobody has been more sincere in resolving the ‘porous border’ once and for all – by fencing it – than Pakistan, while the so called victims of this problem have resisted all such efforts. Considering how all else has simply failed, perhaps it’s time the straight forward approach of sealing the border, increasing cooperation among the two countries’ security forces and then sweeping respective countries inwards from the Line got some attention.
