There is an enormous irony about the conflict in Afghanistan. From the treacherous uncertainties of the Anglo–Afghan conflict to the shady deals of Communist invasion, to the subsequent circus of “warlord football,” to now decade-long American involvement, I can’t help but wonder what in the world is going on in Afghanistan?
Afghans have decided, or so it would seem to an outside observer, that it is their prerogative to be at each others’ throats since the departure of the Red Army from Afghanistan in 1989. This post-Soviet, post-Jihad conflict has raged on decades beyond fighting the presence of an “infidel army” on Afghan soil; the very people who were “protecting” Afghans from the Soviets turned on each other, marginalizing Afghanistan even more.
The subsequent result has been the fall of Afghanistan from once the most tolerant and most culturally liberal society in the region, to a black-hole of zealotry, poverty and destruction.
The question of why Afghans have continued to fight among themselves post-Soviet departure is one that can perhaps be answered by looking into the tribal and ethic structure of Afghanistan as engineered by colonial Britain (as is almost every other tragedy in the region); the question of our involvement in Afghanistan, however, seems to be proving rather difficult to answer.
The declaration of war on terror by the United States after the events of Sept. 11, 2001 came as a relief to many Afghans; this had meant the engagement of American forces in Afghanistan, leading to the demise, or so it was hoped, of Taliban and the brutal and inhumane grip they had on Afghanistan and Afghan people.
We barged into Afghanistan under the banner of “War on Terror.” We wanted to capture Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind of the attacks on the World Trade Center in September of 2001.
As such, we invaded Afghanistan, and though partially successful in dismantling the Taliban regime, failed to capture Bin Laden. This mastermind and his associates, the mountaineering monkeys that they are, have managed to escape through to the mountainous region of Tora Bora — to an even more lawless region of Pakistan.
Afghanistan was now left with a traumatized people, a corrupt government, a neighbor full of zealotry and a do-good American army that seemed to have missed the real source of the problem: Pakistan.
It is no secret that Pakistan produces terrorists and holy-war fighters like a poultry incubator produces eggs; Taliban and the entire backward ideology they represent is of Pakistani making.
As such, Pakistan has always been the source of bigotry and hatred, and Afghanistan a mere victim.
And so I wonder what the end-goal is in Afghanistan. If the end-goal for us is to fight terrorism and fundamentalism, then we should do so not in the streets of Kabul but in tribal neighborhoods of Pakistan.
Reach Sohail at sbayot@asu.edu
