Our Afghan policy

Afghans are no strangers to foreign military interventions in their country. In the autumn of 1839, Britain’s army of the Indus marched into the heart of Afghanistan entered Kabul in triumph and installed Shah Shuja, their favorite candidate, on the throne of Kabul as the ruler of Afghanistan.

For two years, the conquerors lived in a fool’s paradise, sent for their wives and children and servants, set up cricket and polo fields. The Afghans bided their time. Then suddenly struck. Burnes was slain horribly, and the entire band of invaders – troops, families, camp followers – was compelled to set out for India, through 100 miles of mountain defiles in the depth of the Afghan winter.

Around 140 years later, on Christmas Eve, the Soviets followed the British example, invaded Afghanistan and assassinated Hafeez Ullah Amin. In the early hours following Amin’s death, Kabul radio broadcast a message from Babrak Karmal announcing the formation of a new government under his leadership. After nine years of occupation, the Soviets realized that occupation was too costly and decided to quit. The last Red Army soldier left Afghanistan on February 15, 1989.

Twenty-one years of unremitting war, including nine years of Soviet occupation, had left Afghanistan, a country of ruined cities, disabled war veterans, amputees, young widows, orphaned children, torn-up roads and hungry, starving people. The Taliban, an ideological militia, ruled 90 percent of the country, and tried to consolidate their conquest. Their capture of Kabul in 1996 virtually terminated the civil war in which over 50,000 people had lost their lives. More than 10,000 buildings were destroyed in Kabul alone. They removed all roadblocks erected by warlords between Torkham and Kabul on one side and Chaman and Kandhar on the other. They opened up lines of communication. Trade and commerce began to flow freely. Despite this, only three countries – Saudi Arabia, UAE and Pakistan – recognized Taliban rule.

American had learnt nothing from Vietnam and blundered into the war against Afghanistan. How all the best and all the brightest in America went wrong, horribly wrong.

With the Soviets gone, it was now their turn to intervene. On October 7, 2001, the United States launched a powerful attack on Afghanistan in retaliation against Osama bin Laden for the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. The Taliban had not met US demands to turn over Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda militants. The Taliban were prepared to hand over Osama bin Laden to any Muslim ruler but not America. President Bush declared “the Taliban will pay a price. We are supported by the collective will of the world. We will not falter. We will not fail”. Bush said this 20 years ago. Subsequent events showed how wrong he was. But as Hegel said long ago, “Man learns nothing from history except that man learns nothing from history”:

How will history judge American military involvement in Afghanistan? The Americans are, once again, on the wrong side of history. This reflects their profound ignorance of the history, culture and politics of Afghanistan and the complex personalities and motivations of their leaders. The Americans failed once again, to recognize the futility of trying to wage a modern war on an ancient civilization that formed its identity by repelling invaders. They failed once again to recognize the limitations of modern, high-tech military equipment, in confronting unconventional, highly motivated Islamic religious movements.

Never in my life did I feel so ashamed, so nauseated as I did when we offered, almost at gunpoint, “unstinted cooperation” and logistic support to the Americans in their war against a friendly, neighbouring Muslim country and its poor, hungry, starving, war-ravaged people.

The Taliban ended up defeating the superpower in a war lasting for more than 20 years. Today, Americans are pursuing the Taliban to open talks with the incumbent Afghan government. Like the red army, the American army is leaving Afghanistan with the blood of innocent men, women and children on their hands.

The future of Afghanistan is now in the hands of the Taliban, who have made it abundantly clear that they reject the election that were held when the country was under foreign occupation.

Pakistan must make amends for the wrong we have done to Afghanistan and the Afghan people under American pressure. Pakistan must go all out to help the new Afghan government in the reconstruction of their war-ravaged country.

We have enough trouble on our eastern border. It is bad enough to have a hostile neighbor on our eastern border. It would be disastrous to alienate the forces on our western border and turn them into enemies. Afghans are very good friends but they are also very bad enemies. They do not forget and they do not forgive.

From the very inception of Pakistan, we played into Indian hands by treating the Afghans as our enemies and their leaders as Indian or Soviet stooges. We failed to analyse our assumptions critically with the result that the foundations of our decision-making were seriously flawed. Prime Minister Imran Khan has reversed this policy.

There has been noticeable difference in the country’s foreign policy direction since Prime Minister Imran came to power. With Imran now at the helm, Pakistan stands tall among the comity of nations. Pakistan will never be used as a launching pad for military operations against neighbouring Muslims countries. Pakistan will never be drawn into somebody else’s war.

Imran dared to say what others avoided saying. He never supported the American war in Afghanistan. At a time when friends and foes alike thought otherwise, Imran came out openly in support of dialogue with the Taliban. Subsequent events have vindicated Imran.

The writer is a retired civil servant and senior political analyst.