Afghanistan Current Position

This article contains the objective outlook of what I perceived about the Afghanistan problem.

After going through many sources available across the internet I felt, defeating the Taliban militarily with current strategy of coalition forces is unrealistic. It will be very tough job for them in near future even to retain their current controlled areas, which will substantially need addition of more forces.  So the idea of moving out forces from Afghanistan looks a distant reality.

Also, the USA should dictate a political solution to Afghanistan problem rather than militarily by gaining confidence of various Afghan factions. The basic ideology behind the Taliban should be understood first. It’s sad that nearly after a decade of war still the NATO forces look them as terrorist. They should be treated as extremists who have certain fears regarding the power sharing. This can be solved politically by making them a part of democratic process. 

It seems the Afghan government is not fully dedicated in clearing out the Taliban. They receive huge amount of funds from the various world organizations for rebuilding process and fighting the insurgent groups. And, if the Taliban gets wipe out then there will be a substantial reduction in the inflow of funds which the Afghan government fears off. It also looks, as if though the Americans are not interested in getting out of Afghan. The Afghan has a very important strategic location as it is a part of central Asia which has vast amounts of natural resources particularly the natural gas. So might be Americans are interested in ruling the vast Afghan natural reserves.  

The idea of partitioning the country on the ethnic lines can be disastrous as propagated by few high profile people in the coalition establishment. It can create a new theme of nationalization among Afghan people in which Taliban can be looked as a patriotic organization who is against the international and coalition party’s action of destabilizing the country.  It could also create a lawless state along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border which could provide a safe haven for Jihadis groups which can prove fatal not only to western powers but also to neighboring countries like India and Iran. 

The Taliban is taking control of more and more of rural populace and the Afghan government administration is getting restricted to only urban areas.  For the Americans, the idea of withdrawal of forces in the summer 2011 looks impossible rather it will be necessary to send in reinforcements to counter the rising insurgency and withdrawal of European forces.

Recent attacks on the foreign people in Afghanistan who are there for rebuilding process has led to increase in fear among several countries day by day. This matter should be looked into seriously.

Read the second part @ Afghanistan Current Position Part 2 
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