Editorial

Pursuing A Dangerous Dream

Pursuing A Dangerous Dream On good terms? So it seems. But India and Britain are in no position to create a new type of relationship for tomorrow’s world. Mr Cameron who is the first elected British Prime Minister to visit the 1919 Jallinwalabagh massacre site, didn’t offer any apology but acknowledged Dyer’s action as a shameful event in British history. In reality Mr Cameron came to explore business opportunities between India and Great Britain, albeit he conveniently avoided the AugustaWestland Chopper Scam controversy that has been hitting the headlines in India for quite some time. Perhaps the Sultans of Delhi were interested in Britain’s post-2014 Afghan policy, not black history of Jallianwalabagh, as a new power-equation in the region would be a certainty after the withdrawal of NATO troops. And they are not disappointed as Cameron made it clear that ‘‘Britain will not abandon Afghanistan after the pull-out’’. India’s regional ambition much depends on America and Britain as New Delhi is well integrated in Washington’s strategic orbit. Their sole concern is how to contain Pakistan in a political vacuum.

But the point at issue is whether Britain’s token presence in post-2014 Afghanistan will make any difference in the ground reality as resistance to foreign troops is mounting, NATO withdrawal or no withdrawal. Now even coalition forces are facing violent attacks from the Afghan government soldiers who are, ironically though are trained by western military trainers.

On January 7, the latest shootout between coalition forces and a ‘rogue’ Afghan Army soldier, illustrates among other things that Afghans will never compromise on independence and sovereignty. True, they have forgotten to live in peace but they won’t allow foreigners to dominate their land under any circumstances. Cameron’s predecessors failed to subjugate Afghans despite their superior fire power when they had an empire. The Russians paid the price in blood for occupying Afghanistan. In truth invasion of Afghanistan hastened the process of disintegration of the former Soviet Union. The Americans these days, particularly after their humiliation in Vietnam, are wise enough not to shed too much blood before it is too late. So they are leaving without vacating aggression by allowing their proxies to do the dirty business on their behalf. So Pakistan matters and Cameron cannot do much about it.

For one thing Afghan state forces turning on their Nato allies accounted for a full 25 percent of British casualties in 2012 alone whilst Taliban claim responsibility for the majority, the latest assaults which are described as ‘green on blue’ attacks in western media, were carried out by Hamid Karzai’s government soldiers with no apparent ties to the insurgent groups. So NATO officers believe that around 90 percent of insider attacks are directly due to cultural clash, which is partly behind the decision of the Afghan National Army to supply a brochure to its soldiers as how to deal with their NATO counterparts. It’s again a ploy to suppress the reality. Resistance stemming from the Afghan army is a disturbing signal that all are trying to downplay.

The hard fact is that Afghans, no matter whether they are in National Army or in the rebel camp, are simply reacting violently to continued foreign influence, as opposed to any onset of cultural intolerance. The brutality of British and Western troops fighting under the flag of NATO, in their dealings with the people of Afghanistan is itself a major cause of such violence. The continuation of night raids and notorious drone attacks by the Americans aimed at targeting the Taliban outposts, has led to a great many civilians being accosted, abused and sometimes killed in their own houses. Some 15,000 Afghans, even by conservative estimates, were killed during such raids in a ten month period between 2010-2011—they were all innocent civilians, having no connection with the Taliban. Despite repeated protests by human rights bodies across the world, coalition forces refused to publicly acknowledge a rising number of non-combatant deaths. In 2009 the US military dismissed UN claims that an air and ground attack had roughly killed 80 civilians though the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission substantiated the allegation with their field reports.

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 34, Mar 3-9, 2013

Your Comment if any