| NEW YORK | RUPEE NEWS | August 5th, 2008 | Moin Ansari | Many have started calling the Afghan war as the war for the drugs of Afghanistan. There is an entire unederworld that wants to perpetuate the war so tht the lucrative drug trade can continue to be held in the hands of people like Mr. Karzai who recently bought an island in Dubai. Perfidious double standards to malign Pakistan and justify attacking it
Americans were not interested in disrupting the Kabul-based fountainhead of terrorism in Balochistan nor do they want to allocate the marvellous predator resource to neutralise the kingpin of suicide bombings against the Pakistani military establishment now hiding near the Pak-Afghan border.
In the strongest evidence-based confrontation with the American security establishment since the two countries established their post-9/11 strategic alliance, Pakistani officials proved Brahamdagh Bugti’s presence in Afghan intelligence safe houses in Kabul, his photographed visits to New Delhi and his orders for terrorism in Balochistan.
We wanted to know when our American friends would get interested in tracking down the terrorists responsible for hundreds of suicide bombings in Pakistan and those playing havoc with our natural resources in Balochistan while sitting in Kabul and Delhi”
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The Afghan cauldron Tuesday, August 05, 2008 Ikram Sehgal
In the aftermath of 9/11 it was necessary for the US impose a government in Afghanistan to replace the Taliban. Governance must eventually relate with the aspirations of the people, one perceived evil cannot be replaced by another, and be sustained indefinitely. The UN-supervised elections allowed corrupt elements to become arbiters of Afghanistan’s destiny under the garb of democracy. There is considerable difference between the democratic rhetoric of leaders like Hamid Karzai and what they actually practice in real life.
With corruption rife in the Afghan hierarchy, their pursuits are mostly counter-productive to the war effort. It is no secret that the Taliban are financing their campaign against the coalition through drugs. In a recent article in the New York Times, Thomas A Schweich, who recently resigned as acting assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) and coordinator for Counter-Narcotics and Justice Reform in Afghanistan, wrote: “Fighting is unlikely to end as long as the Taliban can finance themselves through drugs – and as long as the Karzai government is dependant upon opium to sustain its our hold on power.”
Schweich, a noted lawyer who incidentally was reporting in the INL to present to US ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson, wrote that his campaign against the narcotics trade was throttled by “Karzai and his Pentagon friends.” This “filibuster” reached right into the Office of the National Security Advisor where Schweich’s requests for an interview either with General Lute, appointed by President Bush to coordinate the Afghan war from Washington, or with National Security Advisor Stephen J Hadley, failed to materialise. Given the deliberate obstruction of the Karzai government, the poppy field eradication programme was a failure, with only 1,000 hectares, or about one percent, of the Helmand crop being eradicated.
Naming Karzai’s brother Ahmad Wali as one of the major drug lords, Schweich recommended that the US (1) stop Karzai from protecting drug lords and narco- farmers or risk losing US support, (2) make Karzai support a strategy of stopping the planting of poppy as well as aerial and manual eradication of poppies, (3) instruct Karzai to allow Afghan police and counter-narcotics staff to arrest powerful drug lords, (4) increase DEA presence in Afghanistan and assist the Afghan attorney general (since sacked by Karzai) in prosecuting drug traffickers, (5) push key development efforts to replace poppy cultivation, and (6) ask the coalition allies (who are dragging their feet) to help in the effort or let the US do the job. In late 2007, impeded and frustrated by Karzai and the Pentagon, Schweich resigned.
The US military operation needs to become more effective. There are some fundamental flaws that are apparent to even friendly and neutral observers. There seems to be no unity of command in Afghanistan. Recent articles have suggested that while it is bad enough that NATO military forces are reluctant to respond to the ISAF commander, there is no single tactical command of US forces in Afghanistan. Worse, there is ambiguity about the governance relationship between the UN (and its way agencies), the Afghan government, NATO’s military presence, more than two dozen allied nations in the coalition and hundreds of NGOs and private contractors. This Wild West atmosphere makes it easy for Karzai to pass the buck to the Pakistan Army (and the ISI) to cover his own failures. The US has the power to carry out punitive strikes against Pakistan at will, by putting the Pakistan Army under pressure it risks alienating the will of a people already confused and apprehensive about our future. Has it taken into consideration the destabilisation in the region that will occur as a result if the Army is put at odds with its own people? The US has to be patient with Pakistan while putting its own house in Afghanistan in order.
The Afghan Army must be expanded and take on a greater role against the Taliban, it must support police presence in all the nation’s provinces to enforce the rule of law in a fair manner. Besides the logistics of road-building to facilitate economic activity, since a overwhelming major portion of the population depends upon agriculture, this needs to be addressed in priority. Above all, there has to be a coordinated effort to carry out effective poppy field eradication. In this effort the international community must not only participate but give active support to economic activity.
We cannot confront creeping Talibanisation in the NWFP becoming a reality while at the same time being sympathetic to the Taliban in Afghanistan. Before 9/11 one could draw a distinction between the Taliban and Al Qaeda, the lines separating militancy from terrorism have now become blurred. The US and its coalition partners are engaged in a necessary “war against terrorism” internationally. Given the necessity of the “war against terrorism” within Pakistan we cannot escape or shirk our responsibilities. The difficult terrain and sympathetic population along the Durand Line makes it sanctuaries by those taking part in operations against US and coalition forces in Afghanistan. This cannot be condoned, let alone encouraged. Those attacked across the border have a legitimate grouse to act against the source of such militancy, sovereignty notwithstanding. By the damning evidence at hand and duly confirmed by the militants, US Predator attacks have been successful in killing senior Al Qaeda hierarchy. While collateral civilian damage is tragic and one must take steps to avoid it, one must also condemn those who put women and children in harm’s way as “human shields” in their quest to escape retribution.
This is a war that has to be won, it can be won if the US realise that it will take several decades, the primary effort being made within Afghanistan, putting its civilian governance in order and addressing the military inadequacies thereof.
For Pakistan there is no choice, we must be willing participants against the nemesis of terrorism that clouds our future, not only as a civilised society but as a independent and responsible state in the comity of nations.
The writer is a defence and political analyst. Email: isehgal@pathfinder9.com
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