EDITORIAL : THE OUTLOOK, AFGANISTAN

                  

 

Stifle the Evil Attempts

Things are getting hazier in Afghanistan. President talks of US-led occupation and the Afghans' uprising against them if NATO air operations are continued. Certain notorious elements optimize the opportunity to raise anti-American sentiments in public. Thanks to the current freedom of expression, some media channels vividly provoke people to launch demonstrations that most likely turn into uncontrolled violence.

Many analysts wonder how a so-called Afghan intellectual, a University professor, didn't distinguish between the Soviet invasion and the US-led war in Afghanistan. He bluntly said US's presence here was a clear occupation of the country as they carried guns while patrolling. There seems to be no relevance of carrying gun and necessarily being an occupier. The United Nations Security Council sees the International Security Assistance Forces operating in Afghanistan as legitimate body to help Afghanistan get stable in the pro-Taliban age. However, there are some commentators excerpting president's statements and conclude an occupied Afghanistan.

President Karzai's heated speech came following a controversial attack that led to civilian deaths in southern Afghanistan. He thus ordered the U.S.-led coalition to stop bombing homes because too many civilians were being killed. "I warn NATO forces that a repeat of airstrikes on the houses of Afghanistan's people will not be allowed," Karzai said at a news conference at the presidential palace. "The people of Afghanistan will not allow this to happen anymore, and there is no excuse for such strikes." It was Karzai's strongest-ever statement against NATO alliance airstrikes and further complicated a difficult relationship with the Obama administration as it prepares a troop drawdown in the increasingly unpopular war.

In response to the rising concerns on civilian casualties, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan said on Thursday June 02, 2011 that he is committed to reducing the loss of innocent lives to an absolute minimum. The statement marked Gen. David Petraeus's latest attempt to ease President Hamid Karzai's anger over civilian casualties. "We share President Karzai's emotion about this," Petraeus said. "We are here to protect the people, to safeguard them, not to harm them or their property."

On the other side, some experts maintain that president Karzai's harsh criticism and the warning comes as he is in the second term of presidency and will no longer keep silent for having US's support. So, they say, for president, it would be a good chance to amend his image in public and fulfill his promises to the Afghans. However, reports said that he had received advice that the Chinese could prove more reliable allies than the Americans. But that is not what the Afghans demand and how the process moves. Afghans need the international community and the US-led NATO presence for longer time to get capable of an independent fight against extremism. The entire county would come under attacks from more extremist groups and will see more external meddling as soon as NATO forces abandon Afghanistan.

Karzai's government is not yet ready to take on the Taliban insurgency by itself. In the short term, the government needs to avoid impractical statements on the US-led forces here and the country's foreign policy towards the regional and neighboring countries. And more importantly, it needs to prevent misuse of presidential statements and the situation by certain infamous circles attempting to deteriorate the instable situation and deepen the gap between Afghan government and the people and enhance public pessimist view towards the international community working here that will, of course, prove too costly for the new Afghanistan.

Need for Furthering Interaction with Outside World

Due to years of war and conflict, Afghanistan remains one of the poorest countries in the world. It is facing myriads of problems, ranging from
high rate of child mortality and maternal death to high level of illiteracy and backbreaking poverty. There has been progress made after the fall of brutal and hard-line regime of Taliban in late 2001, which had led Afghanistan into isolation from the world and harbored the global network of terrorism that was threatening security across the world.

After the 9/11, which took the lives of about three thousand innocent people, Afghanistan was catapulted into international focus. Over the last one decade, there has been a great deal of interaction between Afghanistan and the outside world.
Afghanistan has benefited from this interaction the most and the donor countries have been contributing to economic restoration and reconstruction efforts by building roads, bridges, schools and carrying out the capacity-building programs for the human resources in the country. Despite a decade of international endeavor to help rebuild the country, the people of Afghanistan are yet to get to the point to live with dignity due to increasing deterioration in security situation and widespread poverty.

Afghanistan remains an aid recipient country and will continue to remain so in the foreseeable future because of the poor capacity to tap its resources to begin to generate sufficient income to stand on its feet.
The Presidential Palace on Friday, June 03, 2011 said that Afghanistan and Italy have signed two agreements on increased political interaction and multilateral cooperation. Italy has around 3,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is one of the major troop-contributing countries to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

The agreements were signed by the foreign ministers of the two countries during President Hamid Karzai's visit to Italy where he attended a ceremony marking the 150th anniversary of Italy's unification along with many other international leaders. According to the statement from the presidential office, the newly signed pacts are aimed at strengthening ties and cooperation in areas of trade, culture and education. In the meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in his talks with president Karzai pledged long-term commitment to Afghanistan's reconstruction.

Afghanistan needs to further increase its interactions with developed countries in order to make its way towards development and modernity.
It cannot get rid of the current ills of insecurity, poverty and other social fragmentation by choosing to stick to its traditional status.