On June 22, 2011, the U.S. president Barack Obama announced the schedule for withdrawal of his country's troops from Afghanistan. Canada has already withdrawn its forces from Afghanistan. Many other countries that have troops deployed and operating in Afghanistan to help stabilize the country have begun or are going to begin to pull out their forces from the country.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, during an unannounced and surprised visit to Afghanistan on Tuesday, July 12, 2011, said his country would pull troops from Afghanistan gradually, with the first phase of withdrawal concluding before the end of 2012. The security transition process is slated to start this month and complete by 2014.
Like other high ranking officials, presidents and prime ministers from allied countries, president Sarkozy also said his country would continue to assist Afghanistan in many fields beyond 2014, when the withdrawal of foreign troops would be completed. But these pronounced pledges and commitments to Afghanistan for the long run cannot allay the concerns of Afghan people. Going beyond the political rhetoric by officials from the troops-contributing countries, one can say that the ground realities in Afghanistan are still terrible.
The ramshackle economy is beginning to shake before even it is stabilized. Taliban militants have infiltrated among the closed security guards. Sunday, July 17th, evening incident that is the killing of son of the president Karzai's top advisers, Jan Mohammad Khan and the killing of president Karzai's half-brother and the head of Kandahar province council reveals the tragic interior of the situation in the country.
French president also said that the roots of terrorism are outside Afghanistan's borders. This statement could be true but it is also used as a pretext to withdraw from Afghanistan before the mission is accomplished. An unstable Afghanistan that continues to be prone to falling back to the hands of hard-line and extremist militants linked and allied with regional and global terrorists will pose threats to world security.
It is true that terrorism in Afghanistan has mainly external root but it is Afghanistan that continues to remain the theater of bloodshed, murder, roadside bombings, suicide and terrorists attacks and the appalling acts of kidnapping. In all of these horrifying incidents, it is the Afghan people that fall victims and suffer.