By Haris Idrees
The enemy has started the fight, but it is we who will fire the last round and war will end on our terms, believes the elusive Taliban. After ten years of futile exercise against Muslims in the disguise of war on terror in Philippines, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Jordan and many other theaters United States simply does not have faintest of idea how to end the nose dive of her empire into chaos. U.S is perplexed as it is bogged down comprehensively in Afghanistan from where she kicked off her “war on terror” campaign. In ensuing battle against Taliban U.S administration has used all it had in her arsenal to turn the tide in her favor, from threatening and attacking Pakistan physically to giving shut up calls to Hamid Karzai and having summersaults over Taliban status, at present, she stands reclusive.
U.S and its coalition partners have set their watches for 2014 to leave Afghanistan but have they fulfilled the prerequisites to bring Afghan National Army (ANA) and its police force to a threshold level to work as a stand-alone entity and stabilize the security paradigm of Afghanistan? If an analytical military mind is confronted by the question, the obvious answer would be ‘No.’ ANA and Afghan security forces have suffered massively through the hands of Taliban and it’s a mammoth task for them to bring security in order, as per requirement. with the present situation of security grim and future bleak, U.S top military brains pulled in “Iraq Awakening council” model to Afghanistan and this time with a name, Critical Infrastructure Protection Program, CIP.
NATO without the consent of President Hamid Karzai, approved CIP program in which rough and rag-tag elements are deployed in areas which are thinly guarded by the security forces especially the North of Afghanistan. At present ANA and afghan police force strength stands collectively at 160,000 personal. If trained and bred well they stand a fair chance to clear and hold an area of responsibility but U.S, NATO and ISAF are betting their money on private militia under the umbrella of CIP program. According to human rights groups such super brats are involved in severe human rights violations. To refute any criticism over CIP program NATO spokeswomen recently said, "The CIP program has produced a reduction in insurgent significant actions (IEDs, small arms fire attacks, etc.) where CIP has been emplaced," she said that the program was requested in writing by the Afghan provincial governors where they were deployed. But on the other hand Presidential Spokesman Aimal Faizi said “The CIP are one of the kinds of groups that President Hamid Karzai has always opposed, they are created unilaterally by NATO forces without coordination with the Afghan government.”
The concept of private contractors to support security forces is not new. It has been thoroughly applied in Africa, Middle-east, Iraq and in Afghanistan. But this time new flavor of the curry is that rather outsourcing the program the administration is recruiting the rag-tags by themselves. 1550 men with most of them having a “trigger happy” personality trait were being recruited and stacked into different units to guard critical infrastructure of the troubled northern Afghanistan. Besides Kunduz, the force operates in Faryab, Jawzjan, Sar-ePul and Laghman.
ANA is sort of a lightly armed army whose war doctrine solely speaks out how to thwart the menace of insurgency. In a hypothetical scenario if ANA had to hold ground against the onslaught of Pakistan or Iranian army on tactical and strategic level, it stands no chances what so ever as it simply does not have the capacity and components to surmount the disciplined, battle hardened and well trained armies of its adversaries in the scenario. In reality ISAF and NATO are training ANA in CQB (close quarter battles), LIC (low intensity conflicts) and intelligence led targeted operations. If aforementioned is the case, which is obviously the one, then indeed afghan government have a pretty light equipped ANA trained to take the militants head on. Then what is the fun in having 1550 Rambos under CIP program? The answer is simple, someone, somewhere is minting big money by launching this program. . Exactly a year back reintegration of low-level fighters of Taliban into afghan society was launched. At present after spending $140 million in foreign aid only 1,700 foot soldiers of Taliban have laid down their arms. Due to massive corruption the said process has hit the snags and proves to be a complicated and unpopular exercise.
Who will reprimand such blood sucking mammals who for the love of money have left their own people at the mercy of carnage organizers. In recent past gang of white collars embezzled $1 billion from Kabul bank and up till now Da Afghanistan bank, central bank of Afghanistan, after taking over Kabul bank have only recovered 10% of the lost treasure. Why is the government in Kabul failing time and again to root out corruption and U.S not desisting from implying obnoxious theories to stabilize Afghanistan while both suffer enduring failures. What happens at the end is, Pakistan bashing and blaming her for all the chaos in Afghanistan. In reality the administration in Kabul and Washington themselves does not want to stabilize Afghanistan for the reasons known well to them. Such lethargic measures, like CIP program, taken up by NATO to stabilize the war torn country clearly hand over time to Taliban by keeping the watches themselves. Due to the time lost the Taliban are back to the driving seat and in recent talks with the U.S are in a commanding position to press for the release of their high profile comrades caught during the enduring long Afghan war.
It’s run against time for the Americans to outperform drastic measures so that they leave behind a stable Afghanistan rather than pulling stunts of money making in which everyone who shares power in Afghanistan is a party.
Talking to Taliban directly will vector their anger towards pacification and idea of opening of a liaison office for them at Qatar is a commendable move. But Once again afghan government and U.S are at loggerheads over the aforementioned as both wants their method of talks to be applied to bring an end to the war. It is time that the practice of turf war and money making should be shunned and genuine joint effort is exerted to stabilize Afghanistan rather not leaving it shattered.
Obama, you have the watches, we have the time. What Pakistan has been saying for years and you turned it down, today you had to eat a humble pie and finally talk to Taliban. Now would you restore the Taliban back into power? They were not your enemies but you attacked them without justification to satisfy your ego.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the SPY EYES Analysis and or its affiliates. The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). SPY EYES Analysis and or its affiliates will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements and or information contained in this article.
Comments
Post a Comment