Afghanistan is located between Middle East, Central Asia and South Asia, and based on its strategic geographic position it has been a barrier between two world powers.
As an independent country, Afghanistan since long has tried to be neutral country and based on its policy it had been a friend to all, but foe to no one.
But when one side of the world power gaining more power, tries to interfere in Afghanistan’s affairs in an attempt to expand its territorial control and create problems to the other side.
This negative policy of the world powers has led Afghanistan to be a battle ground between the two world super powers since decades. 36 years back (1978/04/28) at the same day, President Daud Khan’s regime had collapsed as a result of a coup by pro-Russian politicians.
In 1978 USSR was the super power of the world and in an attempt to expand its territorial control they deployed over 100,000 troops to Afghanistan.
On the other side US, and a number of other countries of the world who also feared the Soviet control expansion have started to create a coordination to stop USSR. As a result of their joint attempts, they started mobilizing the antigovernment Islamic factions and equipping them to stop USSR of gaining more control in the region.
This interference and aggression of the world powers led to a decade long war in Afghanistan which left over two million Afghans dead, one and half million disabled, two million internally displaced and around five millions immigrated to neighboring and other countries.
In 1990s when USSR was defeated and it supported government had collapsed in Afghanistan, US targets were achieved and they forgot about Afghanistan. As during the war Afghanistan had turned into a base of modern weapons of USSR and US as well as home for numerous Jihadi groups, the country fell into the conflict zone between rival factions who were fighting the Soviets.
The fight between the Jihadi factional groups lasted for about half a decade and resulted in killings tens of thousands innocent Afghans. Country’s infrastructure was destroyed, there was lawlessness and different armed factions were controlling different areas.
Absence of central government and the lawlessness throughout the country resulted in emerging of the Taliban who took over Kabul in 1996. Their fundamentalism and enforcement of the most extreme version of Sharia law was also a killer blow the country which led to joblessness and poverty with most of Afghans trying to leave their country.
After the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre US found its interests again at risk and started ousting the Taliban regime.
Besides, this was an opportunity for US to expand its control worldwide and deployed 150,000 troops to Afghanistan.
Both USSR and US without thinking about bloodshed of innocent people just concentrated on their own interests during their invasion.
Now US is trying to make its presence in Afghanistan legal with signing a Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) with the government of Afghanistan, but the conditions of each country is not acceptable to the other.
Currently there are tension between US and the Afghan government on BSA which let US to leave a number of their troops in Afghanistan. Under the BSA, US troops would also be allowed to carry out night raids in Afghanistan, entering Afghan houses for search and not being prosecuted in Afghanistan.
The US is using different means to force the Afghan government to sign BSA to give them right to keep control in Afghanistan for years, but the Afghan government is not ready to do so. The issue created tensions between the two countries.
On the other hand there are some other factors which are also leading to intensifying the tensions between the US and the Afghan government.
The other factor widened the gap between US and Afghanistan is the support of President Karzai for Russia’s announcing the Crimea as part of its territory. The US is not happy with Karzai’s stand, but Russia has welcomed the step by the Afghan government.
Another issue not acceptable for the Afghan government is US support of Pakistan despite of Pakistan’s support to the Taliban and providing them with sanctuaries and hideouts in its tribal areas.
All the tensions between US and the Afghan government caused Russia to show interests in Afghanistan once again. After the BAS tensions and Crimea issues, US suspended paying for equipping the Afghan Army. The deal was already agreed that US will buy military equipment from Russia to Afghanistan.
As tensions are getting serious between US and Afghanistan, Russia once again stepped in and announced that under India’s financial support it is ready to equip Afghan military.
This situation once again put Afghanistan at risk of getting battlefield between two world powers, the US and Russia.
It is not easy for the government of Afghanistan to keep neutrality between these rival powers and follow the policy of being friend of all, but foe to no one.
Right now everyone is waiting for the April 5th Presidential and provincial council’s election’s results. The fingers are crossed for the new government that how it would handle the situation and manage balance between the two world powers cold war.