It was Jan 2016 when the trilateral peace dialogue convened in Serena Hotel- Islamabad. I was one of the key note-speaker form Afghanistan and the author of “The Spy of Chronicles” Asad Durani. Immediately after my speech, Mr. Durani raised his critical card and tried to through curve-ball on the table. among his heckling questions’ one has been directed toward the hesitance, nonchalance, planned and systematic bypasses of the Unity Government in term of peace and reconciliation process. As I had not been the blind flutterer of NUG from the outset for their blunders, I had already singled-pointed our internal disparities and forfeiting, therefore I was bothered to repeat what I already asserted. He surely knew I am unbiased nagging both countries for their planned and unplanned mistakes but Mr. Asad was trying to put my feet on hot water for criticizing Pakistan. Alas.

I read Mr. Durani for years and watched Mr. Mihdi Hassan’s Talk Show (Head-to-Head) in Aljazeera with him through my inquisitive eyes so I knew his psychology. When his asked me his stern question, I answered him detailed and corroborated. He had not had more words to add and this way my talk time ended. Regardless of his approach during the tea break and exchange of business cards; his selfish and biased comments left a mark in my memory.

After two years, his book “The Spy Chronicles” laid on the table for me to read. I have gone through the book and reread the verbatim. The cover of book is flashy, and the name is catchy. Also, the Preface and Introduction for the book is elegantly written which entice the readers unconditionally. I have been the one avid reader who grasped the book after reading the few first lines and got into the mud-walk. Throughout the 255 pages’ book concluded in 33 subject lines; nothing can be found except the twaddle or I call it “loose mid-night tidbits”. The book is written by Mr. Sinha an Indian Journalist, Mr. Dulat, the RAW Ex-director, and Mr. Durani all together. The whole book is composed in questions and answer sessions which is called by many readers “boondoggles”.

Our modern world put the authors in terrible spots. The authoring market is quite tough and readers keep rigorous and vigilant eyes on writing pieces. The readers are smarter asking logic, figures, justified analysis, and new things from writers which are unusual for ordinary minds. Now, let’s have a responsible look into the few treacherous contents of the book:

The fleshy part of the contents focuses on the management style of President Ashraf Ghani. I don’t oppose that many parts of the Unity Government are strongly questionable and I am likely sickened to see them, but it does not mean that Afghanistan is collapsing. The controversy of Mr. Durani centered on Ghani is unjustifiably stinging. He called President Ghani anti-Pakistan, bogeyman, swindler and a leader of knee-deep bending to Washingtonians. Mr. Durani call Ghani embarrassment or someone squeezed left and right by whiz-kids whose outlook are out-of-touch.  

There are potential caveats for Afghanistan to undergo a number of missteps. The suffering on the way forward is either the impact of the regional complexities or mismanagement of Afghan leadership, but the way Mr. Durani call president Ghani finger-puppet to the US command is disgusting and not acceptable. Of course President Ghani is buddy-buddy to the White House but it does not convey a message to be the quisling. Does Mr. Durani try in his book to instigate public insurrection against the ruling authority of Dr. Ghani? if he does then the book is designed intentionally to wear-down NUG which is considered to be a hit from frenemy toward our national interests, not President Ghani.

I have my own set of criticisms on NUG and the leadership style of Dr.Ghani. The excess of idealism in governance, unrealistic development plans, looming security crisis, and emerging of 21 terrorist factions in the country are something Afghans are sickened with but a try to debacle the regime is the double-down not only for the government but for the nation as well, therefore I take Mr. Durani’s statement hostile to the ordinary public than to the president himself only.

Like others, I was dishearten to see Ashraf Ghani as the helm of the Afghan power visit Pakistan military HQ. It should not have been happened, through Afghans needs to knock anyone’s door in such difficult situation to make peaceful society for survival. I do understand that diplomacy we demonstrate will not fix many touchy issues with Pakistan, but the visit of Afghan leadership from GHQ should have assumed as a gesture of good intentions that let Pakistan understand the value Dr. Ghani confessed for them. As a close door neighbor; Pakistan hold a great importance in the Afghan peace and war issues, therefore, Mr. Durani as the master-mind of Pakistan intelligence affairs should have come up with strategic recommendations for the Pak-Afg joint work, instead of demonizing Dr. Ghani’s disparate over-pricing for Pakistan and biting down over their bait.

On the other hand; Afghanistan can not follow the foot-print of Palestine, Sudan’s sorrow, North Korea- South Korea feud, Colombia fratricide or Kashmir squabble to fight for decades; instead to make a way out and do political settlement. Taliban is part of the Afghan conflict. There is need for inclusive understanding and the give-and-take peace formula. Sadly, the recent regional proxies, political face-off of India-Pak, religious supremacy of Iran-Saudi, Russians’ military maneuvers and China-US economic head-on tensed the situation and pro-longed the infighting, therefore Mr. Durani is unjust to come down on Dr. Ghani like tons of blames and bricks from sky.  

Me and thousands of other responsible Afghans are so wounded down deep to see the daily hundreds of military and civilian casualties including the debunked Talib foot-fighter in the ground but we do not need to add more fuel to the fire touching the nerve of our ordinary Afghans putting fiery lines as Mr. Durani who skillfully mentioned the death of almost 300000 Afghans in the last 17 years comparison to 2000 to 3000 US death-tolls. From the outset the international security build-up was not a good idea or the war mission should have been ended at the early stages; but if the war deteriorated today, we need a recipe to bring solace and make a peaceful settlement. The book is not meant to make the desirable case we need, sadly.

Who says that the US has not committed strategic blunders in the Afghan war? It is not me but the US Military Generals, Secretaries, Analysts, CNN, CBS and the New York Times share the feverish observation over the Afghan issues. We need to recover and rethink on the things went wrong instead to make hue-and-cry and further exasperate the country. Likely, as the practiced regional strategist, Mr. Durani was expected to have been unbiased open for offering pragmatic two-ways solution for the state-to-state cooperation for peace and playing baseless blame game.

Also, I am not fully satisfied what Indians do in Afghanistan. The Afghan-Indian strategic partnership can not be concluded in Salma Dam or nitty-gritty development projects here and there but, Indians, comparsions to many other regional countries have been proven productive and offered constructive engagement. The way Mr. Durani extrapolated the Indians’ role in the country is dismaying; and the book put the worst Afghan scenario to be the result of India-US juncture in Afghanistan only.

On other hand, Mr. Durani asserts that in the presence of US; Taliban will not come to the negotiation table, and the US never exits either. Also, he writes that neither the Afghan government nor the United States want peace as long as they are befriended with Dostam, Karzai or Syaf, and Kabul is safe at least. This is not the absolute case, though the peace process is politicize in some part which needs specific domestic and regional fixes.

Peace and stability all over the world is both psychological assurance and physical deal between opposed parts.  The sentence by Mr. Durani “the fight will continue endless” undermine the Afghan morale toward peaceful future, and therefore war-mongers are signaled to try harder to enforce war mentalities in the country and survive under military strategy and not peace. Once I read the book and shared Durani’s assessment with others Afghans; I felt both resentments and dejections in the audiences regardless the case is out and out made-up story. Peace should not have been the way discussed in the book. Mr. Durani says in the book that the peace plan is scuttled by the Afghan government; and when the second round of Peace talk in Muree was going to happen, Mr. Rahamatullah Nabil on the behest of NUG and US unnecessarily announced the death of Mala Omar who was passed away two years ago.

I call it unnecessary too but I put it differently than Durani.

The news dispersed the talkers and dismissed the peace planned events which is sad but diverting minds and creation more confusion means like someone is walking on the double-edged sword which is impossible or deadly. Durani also tagged the US government to kill Mala Mansor who was the true agent of peace and determined to end the war but the US drone killed him in cold blood. Well, what one can say, but we need to frame everything rightly than living in the dark age forever. We need to rake-up the way forward and make a good journey for peace.

To riddle the readers’ mind; Mr. Durani stresses on the new nexus of Iran-Russia and China who will muster powers and play proxies. Forget about the susceptible and war-stricken Afghan societies; even if it is almost developed nation in the world and one with decades long pertinent knowledge predict such precarious caveats for them; the nation could be perplexed and the government will be badly alerted. I am likely saddened to see proxies in my countries, but I seek way out and suggest practical solution to break the deadlock, instead to spread the messages of hatred and disappointments. Of course, proxies are real, and we need to deal with them, but how? This is the question Mr. Durani’s book should have answered instead empty analysis.

Mr. Durani seems confused how to re-brand his old school thoughts in new package but he put controversies instead. In one part of the book he assures the readers that the US is the main stumbling-block toward peace, and another part of the book shows that the US so desperate for peace talk with Taliban. He also mentions that CIA is not very shrewd in dealing with insurgencies of this type, therefore MI6 is requested to connect with Taliban for peace settlement. Such improper authoring tarnish the writer’s professional image and therefore I call the book’s contents fabrication.

Mr. Durani also wishes a second influx of Afghan refugees into Pakistan. He chants that ISIS, Taliban or food insecurity will make Afghans impoverished in Afghanistan so the Afghans and the Afghan government will realize the Pakistan’s role and importance in their hard time then. He doesn’t miss any good word to be put in the book that can better project his senseless intentions toward Afghanistan, and worryingly he do not hide his disruptive feelings toward Afghans.

In one part of the book, Mr. Durani derives the Turks example of 95% public aversion toward US policies. Similarly, the Pakistan’s poll that shows 80 to 90% hatred toward Americans. He drags the example to raise the question indirectly, “Why the Afghan people still do not demonstrate similar intentions toward US or US policies? Of course, there have been wrong doings and in some parts, Afghanistan is driven backward instead forward in the last 17 years, but cry, tears, complains, and blame-game can not take Afghanistan from worse to better, therefore, we all need to rethink and come up with a better and fresh recipes for better future.

To summarize the books in fewer sentence, the one may say that the whole book is the reflection of someone’s personal intentions without scientific research and academic methodologies. The post-publication uproar that Mr. Asad Durani is summoned by the Pakistan’s army is just a marketing shot, so large amount of books can be sold and Mr. Durani will make big chunk of money. I say it because there is nothing dangerous to the army or the book may provoke anti-army sentimentalism; so why the army should have grudge on Durani? Apart from other prattles, the Book is directed to demonize the Afghan leadership, throw sarcastic shoots onto US and splatter public minds toward the future of Afghanistan.

I hope the book should have been more constructive, engaging and ground-based which is not. I personally take a pain to see a key ex-official from the Pakistan’s establishment think hostile or oblivious toward the Afghan burning issues. In the era of intense distrust among Pakistan and Afghanistan; cohesive and inclusive messages are needed than to to air mixed and vexed lines. Also, the recent state-to-state engagement will not respond to the loomed diplomatic turbulences between the countries but public-to-public diplomacy is also an essential part if one expects smooth future relations. Authors, analysts, and media of the two countries shoulder a big weight of constructive engagement, therefore, all state and non-state actors are liable morally and professionally to drive things to the desirable end and make the two nation peaceful, blessed and developing. This is what the two nations of the two countries deserve, and sooner or latter, the Afghan nation in particular should have solace and stability at the country level. Amen, Amen.

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

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