There have been incidents and approaches causing divergence in US-Afghan relations. The two countries have had the closest relation since ouster of Taliban and establishment of the new democratic system here in Afghanistan. Since then, both countries' government officials have complained about the shortfalls obviously seen in the processes of war on terror, reconstruction and state-building.

In most cases, both sides have evaded accountability and have passed the bucket. Taking into account longstanding accusations and counteraccusations, no fundamental and pragmatic solutions are found to apply.

The divergent approaches and discords in policy making and applications have wasted time and resources and have led to ineffective struggles to accomplish the mission. Because of that, state building, peace building and reconstruction have proved unproductive.

Rampant corruption in Afghanistan, undemocratic moves by Afghan government officials and certain external lobbying have been of the main reasons causing US anger at its Afghan partners. On the other side, however, similar complaints have frequently caused rifts with the United States, of which the tactics in fight against terrorism stand at the top. Civilian casualties, night raids and not enough military supplies for Afghan army are of the subjects frequently presented in president Karzai speeches.

One of the significant factors causing malfunction in US-led security mission in Afghanistan is the issue of civilian casualties. It has turned to a conflicting question that is said to have helped insurgents get access to more safe havens in various parts of the country.

Of course, bulk of the death toll is caused by Taliban insurgents who indiscriminately place road side bombs and carry out suicide bombings mostly in populated areas leading to huge civilian fatality. But none of the requests and calls made upon fighting parties to spare civilians has been treated as serious issue by armed militants.

Thus, they are less expected to observe deterrent ways to avoid civilian death. The government has times and again asked the international peace keeping forces to take care of the civilians living in the operating areas.

But no particular achievements are made in this regard and civilian death toll has increasingly created concern for the government and people. The number of civilian deaths caused by international forces in Afghanistan has grown dramatically in recent years, driving a rift between President Karzai and the international forces. Afghan government expressed concern on how NATO forces are operating. In the bluntest statement, President Karzai had called NATO operations in Afghanistan as "arbitrary" and unnecessary.

There have been several reports on civilian casualties during operations against Taliban fugitives. However, the death toll has dramatically decreased by cautionary measures applied by NATO forces. In the most recent incident, the NATO-led ISAF forces carried out a night operation in Gardez city, the provincial capital of eastern Paktia province on Friday Dec. 16 that left a woman dead and four others injured.

However, NATO has defended the night raids as the safest form of operations to take the Taliban leaders off the battlefield, while insisting it will continue the raids but with the increasing participation of Afghan forces.

It insists that in 85 per cent of night raids no shot is fired and they cause less than one percent of civilian casualties. United Nations mid-year report which was released in Kabul in July UN said 80 percent of the civilian deaths in the first six months of 2011 were caused by the attacks of Taliban insurgents and other armed groups. Another 14 percent of the deaths were attributed to Afghan and NATO-led forces and 6 percent were unattributed.

Alike civilian casualties, US, NATO forces' night raids against Taliban and their allied groups in Afghanistan has caused severe temper among afghan government officials. So has done among local publics. The government officials have frequently called upon international forces to stop night operations searching for Taliban members and their local commanders.

On the opposite, NATO forces have asserted that the series of night raids undertaken across the country have brought them bulk of success in arresting or killing Taliban members across the country. They have put emphasis on carrying on night raids which are said to be trouble-free, cost-effective, less dangerous for local inhabitants and highly successful for hunting the wanted militants.

As natural, such operations will require searching some suspected houses where Taliban members come together to outline plans for their next terrorist operations. But the operations have fueled anger among local tribesmen saying their private spheres are violated and their reverence hurt because of NATO and Afghan forces uninformed night raids.

Because of the sensitive nature of night operations and the Afghan tribal social structure and dominance of traditional tribal believes in the Taliban-grown areas, NATO officials have issued a directive providing guidance for the conduct of night raids to prevent civilian casualties and public outrage.

A portion of the directive says, "How the Afghan people judge our conduct and perceive our intentions will be decisive factors in their decision to support their nation's struggle against the insurgency. We must remember that their protection, their respect, and their support are the critical objectives for everything we do".

Putting emphasis on presence of the Afghan National Forces in night search teams, the directive warns, "All searches will be led and accomplished primarily by ANSF forces, and conducted with regard for the dignity of occupants — to include searches of females by females".

Following repetitive calls, in a statement in the Traditional Grand Council on 16 November in Kabul, President Karzai overestimated the need to cut off night raids. He conditioned signing the strategic cooperation document with the US government on ending the night raids.

He reiterated his call on NATO-led coalition forces to stop night raid operations on Saturday. Karzai's comments came after he heard back from a government- appointed team assigned to look into civilian casualties reported during recent NATO air and night time raids in country's Paktia, Kandahar and Kapisa provinces. "Afghanistan will not sign a strategic partnership with the U. S. until NATO-led night raids and search operations on Afghan houses are stopped," President Karzai said.

One thing is clear that Afghanistan and the world countries need Taliban be defeated and other terrorist groups also dismantled to secure the country and the region. But the question remains on what tactics should be practiced to get the mission done. On the one hand, President Karzai is acknowledging that his government has failed to secure Afghanistan.

And at the same time, he is blaming NATO forces for night raids. It shows the president is unwantedly trapped in a contradiction. Of course, there is no rationale to get Taliban defeated at the expense of civilian casualties.

According to reports, military analysis and official data, night raids have proved the most effective and hazardless mechanism to counter terrorism. In a friendly chat with one of Afghan National Army colonel who serves in Khaneshin in restive Helmand, I asked him if night raids were successful and needed to be continued. He clearly agreed that it was the most effective way in fight against Taliban, Al Qaeda members and Haqqani and Hekmatyar guerillas.

And now this question remains unanswered that what mechanisms president Karzai proposes to defeat terrorism if the most effective tactic is denied. Secondly, conditioning the strategic cooperation with the US government on the matter of night raids would indicate playing down importance of the strategic partnership with the United States and disregard Afghanistan fragile status quo. But, of course, no one will accept inhuman, irrational and unnecessary military actions.