The world media reports highlight the fact that the month of June this year was the "bloodiest" for the "occupation" forces in Afghanistan. Far too many attacks were launched by the extremists all over the Pashtun-belt. Karzai still remains on the scene as a US-surrogate but he is reviled badly by his own people for his tragic role. Not a day passes without a bomb-blast or a gory event which poses an audacious affront to his publicly projected-position. He himself, like his close associates, remains a target for those who want to punish him for his treachery. The attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul was yet another tragic occurrence. Its heavy toll included some Indians. Of late Karzai has found it comfortable to point his finger at Pakistan for any such happening in his own country. At times he has used this self-defeating tactic in respect of attacks which take place far from the Pak-Afghan border. While such posturing is resented by Pakistan, it does not please even his handlers. The details of the Indian embassy blow-up in Kabul have not yet come to light. However, Karzai and Manmohan Singh blamed Pakistan for the same. Quite naturally, Pakistan spurned such slush. Even the US has disapproved of such blame-game which appears to be a subterfuge at best. Killing all the "bad-guys", as is the most popular of the children' video games in the US, may not be feasible in many situations but this is more so in the case of Afghanistan. The country history is replete with tales of brave resistance against all kinds of occupation. One can't help appreciating the fact that, invariably, the locals fought against powers which had complete mastery over arms or fire-power. Today again there is an inhuman asymmetry of weaponry between the foreign forces and the local rebels. However, the Afghan has always had the tenacity and patience to wait for striking back at the foe in good time. Ken Gude in an article published in The Guardian on the Afghan quagmire emphasises, "But the list of foreign armies brought to their knees in the mountains of the northwest frontier is long and distinguished. It's time to try something new." Accordingly, based on the historical perspective, he advocates highly judicious use of force to back conciliatory policy. It is an open secret that indiscriminate use of force appears to be failing despite the wishful statements from the local as well as foreign officials." Shashi Tharoor, an under-Secretary General of UN in an article in The IHT has squarely censured the US for its policy failures in Afghanistan which, he advocates like many others, are responsible for the current mess. Wanting to occupy Iraq as per some dubious game plan, the neo-cons with a hidden-agenda appear to have trained all their guns on that unlucky country. It has now been established that they fabricated evidence to mislead their nave president. The net result of the occupation of Iraq has been beneficial for US/ US MNC, the oil-lobby etc while the average American is suffering due to the economic crunch etc. In addition, it has built up a highly committed force of "extremists" who are defying the occupation against heavy odds. It is believed that Al-Qaeda, which was an anathema to the dictator Saddam, is helping the local resistance while Iran is accused, by the US, of supplying arms etc to the militants. As Iraq monopolised the US attention etc, Afghanistan was out-sourced to a proxy-regime which depends on the foreign forces and the warlords of the North etc for its survival. Lacking institutional framework or legitimacy at the national level, the arrangement soon started falling a prey to poor governance, corruption and ethnicity-based favouritism etc. All such factors have tended to accentuate the ethnic divide among the Pashtuns, the big majority, and the others. The Taliban had become rather unpopular when US etc attacked and occupied Kabul in 2001. A pipedream of democracy and democracy was built up by the new set-up. The same was reverberated by the Bonn Conference of donors held in 2002. However, with the passage of time, nothing substantial could be achieved due to tardy financial allocations and dismal ground realities. Some schemes were implemented in the North while much of South remained a no-go area. This further bred the resentment in the affected population. A stage came in 2005 when the Pashtun area was faced with a famine-like situation. To avert the same, the Pashtuns started growing poppy in line with the warlords of the North while the government was obliged to blink. By providing security to such poppy cultivation and export, the Taliban regained their popularity as well as a share in such profits. The "surge" started sometimes in 2006 and it appears to be growing which is writ-large all over. As the Durand Line remains a porous border like the Mexican border, the Pashtuns can, sometimes, slip in to FATA area of Pakistan. Tribal kinship is a very strong bond which is buttressed by force of tradition. Despite huge army deployment by Pakistan, escape roots are available. Lately, NATO etc has been lavishly bombing any suspected movement in the area which is killing innocent people like the 11 Pak Army personnel in Mohmand Agency recently. The majority in FATA as yet are not with the Taliban. However, they are being offered inducements by the latter. If indiscriminate bombing goes on, the Pashtun culture strongly believes in revenge. That may magnify the numbers of the extremists which would create a nightmare-scenario. Public resentment is growing even against Pakistan. To stem the rot, US should launch welfare projects like Distant/ Tele learning, schools offering free-education or boarding, scholarships for higher education at home and abroad, water-conservation etc in collaboration with Pakistan post haste to covey a clear message: Goodwill for the average citizen but War against extremists. The total cost incurred may slightly be more than spent on bombing but the effect can be self-rewarding. Let us give it a shot to save this area as well as the foreign forces in the long run. The writer is an ex-federal secretary