[The Express Tribune, Pakistan]

[Click Here for More Cartoons]

 

 

Pakistan Must Prepare for Afghan Civil War (The Frontier Post, Pakistan)

 

“Even perceptive Western observers smell what the Chicago summiteers have not. It is the whiff of civil war that is so frighteningly disturbing their nostrils. The trouble this would bring Pakistan will be manifold and horrendous.”

 

EDITORIAL

 

May 23, 2012

 

Pakistan – The Frontier Post – Original Article (English)

Dr. Shakil Afridi, a surgeon who helped the CIA identify Osama bin Laden: His conviction on treason charges Wednesday, and his sentence of 33 years behind bars, is sending yet another shock wave through U.S.-Pakistan relations.

 

NEWS VIDEO FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES: U.S. Congress blocks $33 million of aid to Pakistan; 1 $million for every year of Dr. Shakil Afridi's sentence, May 24, 00:07:27

What should one make of the lofty vows made by NATO summiteers about long-term engagement with post-2014 Afghanistan? And what about pledges not to run for the exit before that, when words and facts are in such conflict?

 

France’s new president, Francois Hollande, has flatly refused to renege on his election pledge to withdraw all 3,600 French troops by year's end. At best, he might leave a few for training Afghan security forces – but none for combat. The Canadians left months ago, and so have the Dutch.

 

Indeed, war-weary publics in every NATO country are exerting tremendous pressure on them to pull out quickly. Even in America, the unpopularity of the Afghanistan War has been accelerating. And given their recession-hit economies, even if they wanted to, NATO governments may not be able to sustain the military occupation much longer. Their commitment to continue in the coming years to finance the Afghan security forces must remain in the realm of uncertainty. Whatever rosy scenarios are being woven by incorrigible optimists, the roadmap for engagement with Afghanistan is anything but written in stone.

 

Arguably, another spectacle like the one that occurred when NATO was sucked into the Afghanistan War back in 2006 is now in the making. Up to then, the U.S.-led invaders slept blissfully in their Kabul and Bagram redoubts, leaving the Taliban free to regroup, reorganize and rearm in their southern and eastern strongholds. And when the invaders woke up, not only had the Taliban strongly entrenched themselves in their preserves, but they were fast extending their sway into the country's west and north. NATO was roped in so as to stem this Taliban tide. And given its huge war machine, there were high hopes that it would.

 

Indeed, so confident was the transatlantic military community that an excited British defense secretary crowed giddily that his army would capture its assigned theater in Helmand Province without firing a shot. But NATO armies soon discovered that the resurgent Taliban were a hard nut to crack. And ironically, instead of taking on the Taliban and the other insurgent groups that had sprung up to carve out their own domains, NATO members fell to quarreling among themselves over the number of boots and quantities of weapons to be deployed, with most reluctant to act in the actual theaters of the war.

 

SEE ALSO ON THIS:

News Bundle: Arrest of CIA Informant Dr. Shakil Afridi: Comment from Pakistan

Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Germany: ‘Lost Nation’ of Germany NATO’s Big Problem

Die Zeit, Germany: Price of NATO Survival: Diminished Sovereignty

Frontier Post, Pakistan: American ‘Grandees’ Should Pay Pakistan and be Grateful

Gazeta Wyborcza, Polish: Dire for E.U. Absent Less Nationalism, More Cooperation

 

All U.S. entreaties to its NATO peers to chip in more troops and equipment, push into the active war theaters and to fight, failed to work. That led a frustrated U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates to fume that NATO members were neither prepared to provide more troops and equipment, nor willing to share in the costs of the war. In all probability, something similar is happening this time around. Evidently, NATO armies have lost all stomach for remaining for even a few more years. Their political bosses back home are under great public heat to get out of a war deemed no longer affordable.

 

Even the idea of remaining engaged with training the Afghan army and police is fraught with uncertainty. With Afghan security personnel turning increasingly on their foreign trainers - often fatally - there is a perceptible unease among NATO armies about this aspect of the mission. In fact, after a number of deadly assaults on foreign advisors, all such personnel have been removed from official Afghan agencies, performing their advisory duties from the safety of their military bases. Foreign trainers even sleep with their weapons besides them at their exclusive billets.

 

The Taliban may be exaggerating, but it isn’t inconceivable that they have infiltrated the Afghan security forces. They just may have, even if on a small scale. Indeed, in their quest to quickly raise some 320,000 Afghan security forces, the occupiers have followed very lax verification procedures, giving plenty of space not only to Taliban, but to other shadowy figures. In any case, deadly assaults on foreign trainers by their Afghan charges will in all likelihood increase in the days ahead, sapping the spirit of the trainers and their peoples back home, and ultimately leading to the scuttling of the entire training mission.

Posted by Worldmeets.US

 

 

SEE ALSO ON THIS:

Le Figaro, France: Pakistan Has its Reasons for Acting Like a 'Double Dealer'

Le Monde, France: Pakistan and America: Preparing for a Timely ‘Divorce’

The Frontier Post, Pakistan: U.S. Withdrawal Plans 'Spell Doom' for Pakistan

FARS News, Iran: Revolutionary Guards Display Downed American Drone
La Jornada, Mexico:
Senators and U.S. Drones: What Else are They Hiding?
The Nation, Pakistan: Downing American Drones: Iran Shows Pakistan the Way
Der Spiegel, Germany: Obama's Plan Reignites German Withdrawal Debate
Asia Times, Hong Kong: Obama 'Puts the Heat' on Pakistan
Telegraph, U.K.: Osama bin Laden hiding place visited by Taliban
Global Times, China: Western Criticism of Pakistan is Wrongheaded and Unfair
La Jornada, Mexico: Afghan Official Asserts: 'Osama Blew Himself Up'
Tehran Times, Iraq: West Uses bin Laden's Death to Distract from Bahrain Atrocities
Diario Decuyo, Argentina: Bin Laden's Death is a 'Call to Arms' for the World's Clergy
El Pais, Spain: After bin Laden: West Must Reflect on Methods of Self-Defense
News, Switzerland: The Pope and the Terrorist: Two Misguided Beatifications
Tagesspiegel, Germany: Osama Photo Issue - Obama's Morally Superior to Bush
The Nation, Pakistan: Afghan Official Asserts: 'Osama Blew Himself Up'
Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland: Finally, It's Beginning of the End for al-Qaeda
Al-Seyassah, Kuwait: Osama Now Being Licked by the 'Hottest Flames in Hell'
Les Dernieres Nouvelles d'Alsace, France: Osama's Photo: 'The Impossible Truth'
Der Spiegel, Germany: Donald Trump and the 2012 'Campaign of Lunacy'
Excelsior, Mexico: Obama Quiets 'Right-Wing Witch Hunters' ... for Now
Izvestia, Russia: Osama bin Laden: From Abbottabad to Hollywood
Frontier Post, Pakistan: U.S. Raid Exposes Pakistan's 'Unnerving Vulnerability'
Al-Madina, Saudi Arabia: Osama Died, But those Who Gain from Terror War Live
Dar al-Hayat, Saudi Arabia: Osama and His Whole Way of Thinking - are Dead
Daily Jang, Pakistan: Operation Against Osama Spells Trouble for Pakistan
Kayhan, Islamic Republic of Iran: Obama Seeks to 'Vindicate Bush'
Outlook Afghanistan: U.S. Must Pursue Mullah Omar as it did bin Laden
Pak Tribune, Pakistan: Senators Call U.S. Operation a Breach of Sovereignty
Frontier Post, Pakistan: Osama Episode Puts Safety of Nuke Assets in Peril

The Nation, Pakistan: Pakistanis will React Badly to Reopening NATO Routes

Le Monde, France: Pakistan and America: Preparing for a Timely ‘Divorce’

Frontier Post, Pakistan: Whistleblower Unravels America’s Afghan ‘Hoax’
FARS News, Iran: Revolutionary Guards Display Downed American Drone
La Jornada, Mexico:
Senators and U.S. Drones: What Else are They Hiding?
The Nation, Pakistan: Downing American Drones: Iran Shows Pakistan the Way
The Nation, Pakistan: Time for Pakistan to Down America's 'Bionic Dragons'
The Nation, Pakistan:
Cost of Friendship with America is Far Too High
The Nation, Pakistan:
'Sorry' Won't Wash Away NATO Crimes in Pakistan
The Daily Jang, Pakistan: Is Washington Behind Pakistan's 'Memogate'?
The Frontier Post, Pakistan: U.S. Withdrawal Plans 'Spell Doom' for Pakistan

 

 

Even perceptive Western observers smell what the Chicago summiteers have not. It is the whiff of civil war that is so frighteningly disturbing their nostrils. Given the rabid multi-ethnic reality of Afghan tribal society, inclusiveness should have been the invaders’ watchword from day one. Instead, it has been exclusiveness, and the Pashtun majority has been shunted to promote Afghan minorities. Sooner than later, it is this exclusiveness that has laid the minefield for Afghanistan to explode into civil war.

 

Most of all, this should greatly concern the Islamabad establishment. In such an eventuality, there will be none other than Pakistan at the eye of storm. The trouble this would bring Pakistan will be manifold and horrendous. Make no mistake about it.

YOUR DONATION MAKES OUR WORK AS

A NON-PROFIT POSSIBLE. THANK YOU.

opinions powered by SendLove.to
blog comments powered by Disqus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Posted by Worldmeets.US May 25, 12:19am]

 






Bookmark and Share