Once again the spectre of 2014 pullout is featuring high on the US agenda. These talks aiming to address the security situation in the post withdrawal scenario, are now being held between the US and Afghanistan, where the US now demands a ‘license to kill’ from the Afghan government. Seen clearly as a breach of trust and of sovereignty (if there is any left after 12 years of active military occupation by the US), the Afghan government seems reluctant to give in to the unfair US desire to conduct independent and unilateral military operations after 2014, while expressing the inability to promise Afghanistan any protection against any foreign invasion, that is being feared as a fallout of the withdrawal of western security forces from Afghanistan.
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that talks either between two allies or with the enemy fails because of unfair and unilateral demands being made by the US and the inability to address issues faced by the other party. Take the example of Pakistan-US relations that have been at rock bottom for very long, as the US has expected too much from Pakistan, while backing out of what it had promises.
Talks with the Taliban while desiring military operations that too of an independent nature, hardly makes any sense, if viewed objectively! But from the American perspective it makes absolute sense, that the US wants its own way in the region without taking into account the interest of the regional stakeholders or being concerned about the fallouts of its one-sided policies in the region. This unilateralism has become nauseatingly familiar and needs to stop before it damages the Asian continent any further.
Professor Kabil Khan,
Peshawar, October 13.