As the war on terror enters its 12thyear in Afghanistan, it is distressing to see the disastrous consequences of it not just manifested in the condition of Afghanistan today, but also most egregiously in neighbouring Pakistan, which took up the challenge of joining the war as a key non-NATO ally of the US. The tragedy comes into sharp relief when one realises that the goalpost, repeatedly shifting in he face of insurmountable odds, could not even be uniformly agreed upon, let alone be reached. The elimination of Osama bin Laden after 10 years of ceaseless hunt and other top operatives has not left the hydra-headed Al-Qaeda rudderless. If its threat is petering out, as the US would have the world believe, it has spawned groups, collectively termed for the sake of convenience the Taliban, to continue the resistance struggle and slowly but inexorably bleed the foreign forces. And they have not failed. To quote from a statement of the Taliban, as many as 3,199 Nato troops, including more than 2,000 American servicemen, have been killed and the casualty graph is rising.
The legacy they leave behind is neither a democratic dispensation nor peace; in fact, the way minority ethnic groups have been put in place of authority, it is not wide of the mark to predict for the beleaguered country to revert to the post-Soviet days of chaos as soon as the Nato troops are out. The Afghan security forces, on whom the US is relying to keeping terrorism at bay and maintaining peace, are turning their guns at the soldiers training them and are suffering multiple times as many casualties in districts handed over to them for control as compared to Nato when it held the charge. To rebuild Afghanistan’s shattered socio-economic and political fabric is a Herculean task. The US is also badly hurt, with human and material losses in combat followed closely by stress-related suicides in the fighting cadres. Five to seven times are the estimated figures of those crippled for life, living on handouts from the government. The economy is under pressure of trillions of dollars of debt and the lowering of living standards. A growing number of citizens are turning against the war. In Britain also there were street protests the day before against its participation in the war. The Nato, as a whole, is dismayed at the outcome both in terms of its failure to stamp out the shadowy but dogged resistance and the loss of men, of material and of face. And as the superpower got entangled in its vengeful war, rival powers like China found the going good for their rise to prominence, putting into question the Washington’s dream of strategic spread across the Central Asian Republics.
Closer to home, the effect on Pakistan has been disastrous. One had expected the post-Musharraf democratic order to give a fillip to the tempo of economic growth and create conditions for progress and prosperity of the general public. But, alas, we have backtracked in virtually every field. The economy is in ruins; galloping inflation has pushed down the poverty line a chillingly high number of people; jobs are scarce and layoffs not uncommon as a result of closure of industries, that is accentuated by prolonged power cut-offs; insufficient availability of funds has impacted vital social sectors like health and education and other development works. Over 40,000 Pakistanis, including 5,000 security personnel, have been killed in the war on terror; and yet the end of militancy is nowhere in sight and a sense of insecurity and resentment has gripped the entire citizenry that is more pronounced in the areas where terrorist activities, military operations and drones are active. The sooner the war ends and peace returns to Afghanistan the better for the stability of Pakistan as well. How exactly peace is to be established in Afghanistan is, as it has always been, the multi-billion dollar question.