Media reports that US forces are going to leave their military equipments to Pakistan have started a new turmoil both on political and social arenas. According to these reports, the military equipments including heavy armored vehicles, demining vehicles and other military objects that were to be shifted back to the United States with the withdrawal of their forces, have been decided to be handed over to the Pakistani army after the talks between Washington and Islamabad. It is now almost more than 6 months that American forces started packing up their equipments and sending them to Pakistan to be transported to the United States from Pakistani seaports. However, it has been learned that American forces will leave majority of their equipments to the Pakistani forces.

This decision has sparked anger in the Afghan public. As shown on different news channels, Afghan politicians have called it the ‘dual behavior’ of America regarding Afghanistan. Afghan public, which is already in anger against the civilian killings in American operations inside the country, has termed as typical of their attitude towards Afghans.  According to them, Americans have always treated Afghans as inferior and this has resulted in the declining image of Americans in the eyes of Afghans.

Anyhow, the simple logic is that Afghan forces deserved them more than any other country. First, Afghan forces are in the stage of establishment and they still lack a lot of equipments. These equipments could have met most of the needs of our forces. Secondly, these equipments also contain mine detecting objects which are direly needed in Afghanistan. Citizens of the country are still in fear of becoming victim to one of the millions of mines that were buried in different eras of Afghan civil war. It is the reason why, both national and international organizations are working to clear the mines from different parts of the country. On the other hand, American forces were using these equipments in Afghanistan and Afghan forces also learned their usage while they were operational in the country. Majority of these weapons were made in accordance with the needs of Afghanistan’s geological and strategic considerations and can work better in our country.

Anyhow, the efforts may be underway to reverse the decision and acquire the said equipments for the Afghan forces. However, it also remains a fact that our top government officials were not able to convince the American authorities for their handover to Afghan forces while the same was done by the Pakistani authorities. This point can be noted down for similar conditions in future as well.