In Principle, The Taliban Have an Upper Hand Over the Kabul Government, They Have Twice Fought to get Foreign Troops Out of Afghanistan, this is Fact, The Ashraf Ghani Government Needs to be Flexible in Involving the Taliban in a Political Process

  

 

In Principle, The Taliban Have an Upper Hand Over the Kabul Government, They Have Twice Fought to get Foreign Troops Out of Afghanistan, this is Fact, The Ashraf Ghani Government Needs to be Flexible in Involving the Taliban in a Political Process

Mujeeb Khan

 

Former President Hamid Karzai and President Ashraf Ghani

Taliban for Peace

President George W. Bush in White House with President Pervez Musharraf, President Hamid Karzai

  For 20 years, US and coalition forces have failed in Afghanistan, and with them, two Afghan governments, Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani has also failed. How did it happen? The US military defended the Kabul government and it failed, the Kabul government supported the US military presence in Afghanistan, and now all have failed together. President Ashraf Ghani did not learn from the failures of President Hamid Karzai, after the failure of the Hamid Karzai government, the United States did not stop Ashraf Ghani from following his predecessor's path. Whenever innocent Afghans were killed in US military operations against the Taliban under the Karzai government, the Taliban were gaining ground and the Kabul government was loose politically and the US was loose militarily. The Kabul government should have kept away the role of foreign troops in internal affairs, the Kabul government should have assumed its political and security responsibilities. Efforts to bring the Taliban into the political arena should have started ten years ago, and the responsibility for establishing peace and security in Afghanistan would be given to the civil agencies. The US gives Afghan leaders the impression that 300, 000 Afghan soldiers and airmen have been trained. Now they will fight the Taliban.

  Ashraf Ghani has said in parliament that “the war with the Taliban has now begun.” Meanwhile, news has come from Washington that B-52 planes will act against the Taliban initiative. The US military has bombed parts of Afghanistan, inciting the Taliban to retaliate on the one hand, and trying to sabotage the US agreement with the Taliban on the other. The status quo that has come to Afghanistan in 20 years due to US and NATO military presence suits the Kabul government, the warlords, and the drug mafia. Therefore, the current and previous governments have not made any sincere efforts for peace in Afghanistan.

  The Trump administration has been negotiating with the Taliban for peace in Afghanistan for almost a year. The Taliban’s first demand was the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. The Trump administration accepted the demand, and the Taliban complied with the US’s demands. Now President Ashraf Ghani says President Biden has “hastily decided to withdraw troops.” The agreement called for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan on May 1, 2021, but President Biden decided it on September 1st. The Ashraf Ghani government was so indifferent to peace efforts. President Ashraf Ghani may not have believed that the United States would reach a peace agreement with the Taliban. The Taliban has gained international support through an agreement with the United States. Britain has said it is ready to work with the Taliban, China said the Taliban has a role in the government. After a few visits to Russia and China, the Taliban’s thinking has changed, and said they do not want a war with the government but a solution to the Afghan problem through political dialogue. In Afghanistan, they do not want more blood-shedding, they have cleared their position.

  There are some rogue Taliban among the Taliban, who are against negotiations with the government. Some Taliban are in various warlord’s militias. The real picture of what is happening in Afghanistan now is not in front of the world. It could also be Hekmatyar’s Islamic party, which is conquering Afghan provinces by waving Islamic state’s flags on motorcycles. They are discrediting the Taliban. In this situation, President Ashraf Ghani’s declining political position is getting recover. And those in the United States who are opposed to withdrawing troops from Afghanistan will be right. Afghanistan is a tragedy of human history.

  Twenty years ago, President Hamid Karzai accused Pakistan of supporting the Taliban’s activities in Afghanistan, and now, 20 years later, President Ashraf Ghani has also accused Pakistan of supporting the Taliban. However, Qatar also has ties to the Taliban. Qatar has allowed the Taliban to open an office in Doha. The Taliban were also active in Afghanistan from Qatar. But the blame game is only on the part of Pakistan. I wrote in a newspaper in Pakistan at the beginning of the Afghan war in 2001 that it would be a long war, Pakistan will be embroiled in this war. There are two million Afghan refugees in Pakistan, the Taliban are among the refugees. They will go to Afghanistan and detonate bombs there, then there are the enemies of Pakistan in Afghanistan, they will send terrorists to bomb Pakistan. The Afghan government and the United States, instead of dealing with Pakistan joined hands with India and destabilized Pakistan. Israel, India, and the United States aimed to remove nuclear weapons from Pakistan. I wrote that the Musharraf government should one day close all the buses in Pakistan and fill the Afghan refugees in these buses and leave them on the Afghan border and close the borders completely. President General Pervez Musharraf had decided to send Afghan refugees to Afghanistan. President Hamid Karzai disagreed with Pakistan’s decision was that the Afghan government did not have the resources to resettle and employ these Afghans, until then, Pakistan should keep them. President George W. Bush invited President Pervez Musharraf and President Hamid Karzai to the White House. And he had personally asked President Musharraf to keep Afghan refugees in Pakistan, saying that the situation in Afghanistan was not yet conducive to taking back those Afghans. President Musharraf accepted President Bush’s request. President Hamid Karzai returned to Kabul and the next day stated that the Taliban are in Pakistan, they come to Afghanistan from Pakistan and detonate bombs here. President Georg W. Bush has left, and President Barack Obama was the new Commander-in-Chief.

  President Obama valued President Karzai’s allegations against Pakistan. Indian leaders had made it clear to President Obama that Pakistan was the root cause of terrorism. There are terrorist training camps in Pakistan. Instead of focusing on Afghanistan, President Obama focused on Pakistan. Part B of the Afghanistan war was Pakistan. Pakistan had fought a fierce war against foreign intervention and global terrorists. Thousands of Pakistani soldiers and civilians were killed in the war. Pakistan’s crime was that it helped the United States and the western bloc in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. This is instructive politics for countries like Pakistan. The lesson is never again.