In recent times, top Western officials, from the Defense Minister of the United States to the NATO General Secretary and to the top US Commander John Campbell (who recently left his job), have constantly warned us that the situation in Afghanistan is going to get dire and that the year ahead of us is also going to be a difficult one in terms of the fight against terrorists. Some has even said that it’s just about survival for Afghans. These are surprising statements, at least for a common Afghan like me who lives in Afghanistan and observes the current affairs keenly. It’s also mind-boggling for the security forces of Afghanistan who have been at the frontline of every battle defending their country. Since 9/11, a lot of blood and treasure has been sacrificed to bring peace and development to Afghanistan. It’s been nearly 15 years now. One would expect that after 15 years of sacrifices we would at least be optimistic about the years ahead, if not claim the victory against terrorists. But that has sadly not been the case. It’s also amazing to hear such comments when just a few years ago before the contention issue of BSA (Bilateral Security Agreement), Western experts and officials were arguing that the BSA is a condition for peace and security in Afghanistan. Nonetheless, it has been signed, but obviously it hasn’t yielded any positive results yet, in fact the security situation has gradually deteriorated especially in the past year, 2015. So the question arises, why are we still pessimistic about our safety and victory after all these years?

Well, one of the main reasons for such pessimistic comments is the surging power of Taliban, and that’s where their full support come from. In fact top Pakistani Advisor Sartaj Aziz has confessed this in his recent remarks saying that Pakistan has significant influence over Taliban because they are living in Pakistan and so are their families. Recently, United States’ former Ambassador to Afghanistan and later Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad went on to shed some light one the negative mood of Western nations in Afghanistan. He explicitly said that the principle failure of the United States in Afghanistan was its refusal to deal with Pakistan’s double game, who on the one hand allies itself with the International community for fight against terrorists, and on the other hand gives sanctuaries and harbors terrorists in its land. Then why is the United States not going after Pakistan when they know that Pakistan is behind all the terrorists who kill Afghans and foreign troops? It’s quite puzzling and pity that after all these years, we are trying to bring some sense to this issue which we shouldn’t do because the United States very well knows Pakistan’s hypocritical role in the fight against terrorism. It’s also very damaging to the image and credibility of the United States when they turn a blind eye towards the role of a known terrorists-backer, which is Pakistan. However, to find an answer to these intricate and delusional state of affairs, we should refer to the comments recently made by the top two former US Commanders in Afghanistan.

1^st – General John Campbell, who in a open defense hearing told US senators a few weeks ago that the policy of their government (i.e. United States) is that Taliban are not considered the enemy of the United States. This is a shocking admission when you see the main driver of the violence in Afghanistan and in the region are Taliban, who just not kill Afghans but the International forces as well.

2^nd – General John Allen, who when pushed about the question of Pakistan’s relationship with terrorists told to the audience of Council on Foreign Relations a few weeks ago, that the reason the United States can’t face Pakistan on its relations with terrorists is because of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. And therefore, the United States must maintain a relationship with Pakistan, no matter what they do. It’s a rare confession. He was also referring to the national interest of the United States, which is that as long as Pakistan possesses nuclear arms; the US can’t do much about their other rogue activities.

So what does this mean for us the ordinary people? It obviously put a lot of doubts in everyone’s mind, which lead us to question if the United States is honestly fighting terrorist organizations like Taliban. And it also proves why we haven’t achieved any peace and stability in Afghanistan in the last 15 years and it will probably be the same at least in the immediate future. More dangerously, the cynicism and lack of clear policy on the part of Western officials only bolsters the moral of our common enemies, which are terrorists terrorizing us everyday. That must stop. Having said that, the Afghan government and its security forces see Taliban as the number one enemy of Afghanistan, and they will keep fighting these terrorists emanating from Pakistan. They have evidently made success against the scourge of so-called IS (Islamic State or Daesh), who used to have strongholds at the Eastern provinces of Afghanistan, mainly Nangarhar which shares border with Pakistan. This intent has been noted in the speeches of President Ashraf Ghani, who has repeatedly said that Afghanistan is going to be the graveyard of IS. 

So, at the time when Afghanistan goes through delicate period in its history and at a time when we deal with such serious threats, we hope that our International partners will support us and make their intention clear against the state of Pakistan for nurturing terrorists. Only concrete practical actions against the double game of Pakistan will bring peace and harmony to Afghanistan and the region. All these other knee-jerk statements won’t help.

View expressed in this article are of the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Pajhwok’s editorial policy.

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