Patience is the only option for Afghan people. In order to explain what we mean by this, it is to be said that over the last one decade of Afghanistan being in the spotlight of international community, things have improved and things have deteriorated or at least have begun to deteriorate. This may look a bit paradoxical but it is the reality on the ground. However, at the same time one can see the hopes for a better tomorrow in Afghanistan, which has been troubled for the last three decades, based on the things that have improved and in the meanwhile see frustration with the things that have gone badly wrong and worsened.
This is the easy formula or plausible reasons for having mixed feelings and paradoxical perspectives or having both hopes and fears simultaneously when it comes to analyze the situation in Afghanistan at the time being and the prospect of post-withdrawal, which is supposed to complete in 2014. Afghanistan continues to be spotlighted and there is a high level of interactions and visits of the leaders of the countries involved in the mission to help the country achieve security and peace.
On Sunday, October 16, German President Christian Wulff arrived in Kabul on an unannounced visit. He met with president Karzai and some civil society representatives. The visit comes while Germany is preparing to host the Bonn II conference on Afghanistan and as president Karzai said in a joint news conference Afghan government expects international community to reaffirm their support for Afghanistan and design program for development of the country beyond 2014, the end of foreign troops' withdrawal.
Wulff has said," Germany will not abandon Afghanistan." He also called on Pakistan to further its efforts to crack down on insurgent groups operating across the border and in the tribal areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Germany has around 5,000 soldiers operating under the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. It has been one of the main partners in training Afghan national police. These visits and statements are promising but in practice Afghan people need to exercise patience to see a real change in the things that have deteriorated such as security and corruption while building on the improvements and progresses made in areas of education of Afghan children who will be able to make informed choices and contribute to rebuilding their country based on new national attachments.
These achievements are the shorter jumps which will help facilitate the longer leaps to happen. Afghan people will never return to the past but since there have been failures to make big jump in breaking with the past or in making headways towards a development Afghanistan, the suffering of this struggle will continue to inflict the people for a while, which needs patience instead of disappointment.