#dnaEdit: A meaningless war

There are quite a few absurdities in the Northern Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s (NATO) military expedition in Afghanistan. It came in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in New York and Washington, which the Americans attributed to al-Qaeda. As al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was the guest of Taliban, the Islamic militant government ruling in Kabul, the United States turned to Afghanistan. There would have been no war if the Taliban leaders led by Mullah Omar had agreed to hand over bin Laden to the Americans. The Taliban held on to antiquated notions of tribal sense of honour and refused to part with bin Laden and his bunch of followers who they deemed as guests. Through its infamous Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), The Pakistani army unsuccessfully tried to persuade the Taliban leaders. 

The Taliban were in control of Afghanistan from 1996 and the US was dealing with the Afghan regime though there were no diplomatic ties with the Islamic government. The three countries which gave diplomatic recognition to the Taliban at the time were Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Later, the UAE downgraded its diplomatic ties to the consular level. In 2001, the only country with diplomatic ties with the Taliban was Pakistan. 

In the face of the overwhelming military attack by the NATO troops led by the US, the Taliban melted into thin air as it were, and Operation Infinite Justice was launched. The operation was renamed on September 26, 2001 after protests from Muslim religious groups to Operation Enduring Freedom. Both Mullah Omar, the Taliban chief, and bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, eluded the Western troops. For days, the NATO soldiers scoured the Tora-Bora caves in eastern Afghanistan for Omar and Osama without success. Then US president George W Bush’s cowboy exclamation, “We will smoke him (Osama) out” remained an empty boast. It was only in May, 2011, that the American Navy Seals entered the house in Abbottabad in Pakistan and shot him dead. Whisking away his dead body, they later dropped it into the sea.

The US was befuddled in its objectives of waging a war. The Taliban were not involved — neither directly nor indirectly — in the September 11 terror attack. Afghanistan paid a price for what the al-Qaeda is supposed to have done because the al-Qaeda leader and his followers were found in Afghanistan. Having entered Afghanistan, the US and other European members of the NATO, set about reordering the political system in Afghanistan, starting with the Bonn conference in December, 2001. The different tribal leaders were brought together and the Afghan king Zahir Shah, who was living in exile in Rome since 1978, was brought back. At the traditional Loya Jirga held in June 2002, a transitional administration was set up with Hamid Karzai as the acting president. The first elections were held in 2004. Karzai continued in office till this year and he was succeeded by Ashraf Ghani Ahmedzai. 

Afghan-watchers recognise that the democratic system set up under the supervision of the NATO is not a stable one, and it could collapse in the face of a determined Taliban attack. The Taliban are still around. They are armed and spread across the south of the country. The Afghan government and security forces are left to face the Taliban threat as the Western troops, euphemistically called the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), go home. The Afghan war of the first decade of this century has turned out to be a futile mission. Interestingly, US$1trillion was spent on the war and US$100 billion on development. The figures tell the whole story about the meaningless war.