Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, April 19th, 2024

Abandoning Afghanistan Empty-Handed

Afghanistan just saw another bad luck when the revolt that began in Tunisia started spreading across the Arab world. The country first experienced a negligence period when the US forces attacked Iraq and got stuck on the ground for years. Afghanistan, soon after the 9/11 terrorist incident, turned to the forefront of attentions. It enjoyed great support and attention from the international community; however, it was disregarded later by the world’s focus shift to Iraq. During the period, the mission that was assumed an easy task got toughened; extremism spread across the country and the used-to-be safe places and plans remained unmet here. US’s involvement in Iraq war caused danger to the mission in Afghanistan, the result of which is now being reflected in deteriorating security here. No longer than US’s withdrawal from Iraq, the revolutionaries absorbed world’s attention, once more, leaving Afghanistan on the forgotten corner. With the international forces stationed in Afghanistan and, the remnant forces in Iraq, opening new fronts in Libya or other corners of the world will prove extremely costly for the world and the process of war against terrorism. Launching a military strike against Gaddhafi forces, may weaken the status of Afghan mission. The former foreign secretary of Britain has warned that Afghanistan conflict risks becoming the “forgotten war” as attention turns to events in Libya and the Middle East. David Miliband has predicted dire consequences in Afghanistan unless a “new level of urgency, coherence and effort” is put into reaching a solution before the planned withdrawal of UK and coalition military forces by the end of 2014. He emphasized the need of talks with the Taliban and even the possibility of offering concessions to get negotiations going. “The epochal events in the Middle East this year have redefined foreign policy,” he said. Scrutinizing the indications, Miliband statements seem correct. Because, after a decade, the long running mission in Afghanistan is getting more intricate as the war continues with no tangible outcomes. Afghan government and the international community’s calculations have proved erroneous and strategies have fallen short to fulfill public expectations. On the other hand, irrespective of where the recent socio-political developments are directed to, the global terrorist networks had previously aimed at expanding their area of operation and drawing world’s attention to numerous zones and thus getting them caught in quagmire. The recent developments can also serve the same purpose. Needless to say, the globalized world shares the threats as it does the opportunities and terrorism, tyranny and extremism are global threats but the plan to fight them should remain focused on high priority missions. Changing the focal point will critically damage the achievement; however, at this juncture, the US is not expected to disregard the importance of issue in Afghanistan. So the world would better focus on one to avoid losing two. A second time negligence of Afghanistan will come out really intolerable for the country and the international community. They would better push further to accomplish the mission rather than abandoning the country empty-handed.