Rafiullah Khan Tareen
Time has gone, when war was used to be a preferable option. It is no more a beneficial option. War was solution to the problems, politics and diplomacy is solution to the problems. Trump’s war policy regarding Afghanistan came forward. Afghanistan is a war torn country. Time for Trump administration to mend ways and search for alternative because America has tested the option of war in Afghanistan. It is time to handle situation in Afghanistan through peaceful diplomatic negotiations. War will result in the humanity crisis and America is flag-bearer of Humanity but deeds show instead.
History is testimony that Bush initiated war in Afghanistan met with fiasco. After 17 years of long-stretched war against Taliban, still more than 40% of territory is in the control of Taliban. Despite the fact that US is a super power with her high profile technology and forces of 27 countries unified in NATO, Taliban still rule in Afghanistan. Trump should get lesson from this that war is an obsolete option. Trump should look for table talks with the Taliban.
Martin Luther king says, “Darkness cannot be removed with darkness but with light, hate cannot be removed with hate but with love.” Similarly, evil cannot be defeated with evil but with good. The first thing to understand is that what created this situation in Afghanistan and who made it the bedrock of terrorists. It was the same America that supported the same Taliban in the war against communist Russia and left the Afghanistan unsettled with various warrior factions. America said good bye to Afghanistan without undertaking the project of peace and stability. Now still is repeating the mistake of Bush by sending an additional force of four thousand troops in Afghanistan.
The current policy of trump has accrued much criticism both from the citizens of US and president of Afghanistan. The public of US are against the war in Afghanistan because they get fed up with this dead-end war. Second thing Iraq war acted as an eye-opener for the US public. Afghanistan incumbent president Ashraf Ghani criticized Trump’s strategy by saying that they are against any blood-letting. He further says that they don’t want to shed the blood of innocent citizens and collateral damages.
It is high time to adopt pacifist approach towards the Taliban in Afghanistan. They should be persuaded for the table-talks. They should be made part of the structure and enter them in the main stream politics. America should allocate funds for the construction and reestablishment of Afghanistan instead of wasting money in a war which leads to nowhere but to a blind alley. Time to change the policies and look into the issues with a different perspective. If in twenty first century, we are still using the age old ways of war to defeat the evil, solve the problems. Then what is the benefit of enlightenment, modernism and rationalism and so much progress and development in every field of life.
Trump has strategy of war for the one section of the society, called Taliban. He has no strategy for the other section of society which is consist of innocent law-abiding citizens. Citizens are left at the mercy of God. What it shows? Whether trump is really interested in the in the well-being, peace and stability of Afghanistan or just want to create chaos and instability in the region to procure his own interests and maintain the hegemony of America? Trump ought to revive its strategy for Afghanistan.
Writer is a student of politics in Qauid-e-Azam University Islamabad
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are those of the author and Balochistan Voices not necessarily agrees with them.
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