Lack of transparency in the peace reconciliation program - initiated by Karzai adminis tration to resolve Afghan war through talks with Taliban – has been a matter of great concern for Afghans and countries in the region. Rejection of Afghan government's deal offers by Taliban, time and again, has made the process vaguer. Taliban sees that the international troops are withdrawing from Afghanistan. Therefore, it is quite improbable that it will signal willingness to come to the table of negotiation. They would rather continue to fight.
The withdrawal and transition process, which has already kicked off, has caused the concerns to multiply. That is because the Afghan security forces have yet to go a long way in order to become a competent force to defend Afghanistan on their own.
India which is one of the closest allies of Afghan government has showed its concern over the drawdown of foreign forces from Afghanistan. During the recent visit of US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton to India, S.M. Krishna, India's foreign minister, expressed concerns that the planned U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan that began this month could lead to resurgence in Islamic extremism.
"It is in the larger interests of the region that it is necessary for the United States to work very closely with (Afghan) President (Hamid) Karzai and the government of Afghanistan and thereby create conditions where terrorists do not take any more advantage in Afghanistan," Krishna said on Tuesday. In response to Krishna, Clinton said she had outlined the drawdown strategy and stressed that the US will not support Afghan reconciliation with insurgents unless it is inclusive and protects the rights of minority groups, religions and women.
The US-led forces can not stay in Afghanistan forever. Either today or tomorrow they have to leave the country. But they have started returning to their homes without reaching the goal they had come for. This has increased concern in Afghanistan and at regional level. Although at current it is difficult to say whether the US has been defeated or it is winning the war, one thing that is crystal clear is that the insurgency has become manifold and 150,000 foreign and more than 250,000 Afghan forces are failing to curb it.