Southwest Asia is in a flux. The drone attacks, coupled with the regrouping of the Taleban, have made peace almost non-existent in the region.
The problem is that it is not only impacting Afghanistan, the theatre of war, but also equally destabilising Pakistan, which is facing a breakdown in the law and order situation. The recent attacks in Kabul in which the Pakhtoon militants took on the Coalition forces in a daredevil manner, the drone intrusions inside Pakistan’s settled areas and the attacks on army installations are sufficient to make a case against the United States. Washington is clueless as to what must be done with the strife-torn region, as it prepares to exit by the end of 2014. Though the Pentagon has been non-committal on its disengagement policy, the State Department is under a mandate to pull out of Afghanistan no matter what the arguments against such a pull out are. In this regard, the pressure that the US is exerting on Pakistan to relaunch another military operation in its restive remote tribal areas could swing the pendulum back towards heightened militarism.
That the United Nations has taken notice of the drone attacks — and the devastation that these unmanned vessels have brought on civilians — is a welcome step. But without a proper mandate it’s difficult to ascertain how the world body can influence the US to change the course of its anti-terrorism campaign.
Secondly, the role of the UN in Afghanistan and Pakistan is no more than that of a humanitarian agency, and it hardly enjoys the clout to influence the scheme of things when it comes to peace and security. The least that the UN can do is to initiate an independent inquiry into the drone attacks and catalogue their devastation and ramifications for the region.
The beleaguered Kabul government that had more than once tried to reach out to the Pakhtoon elements should try again and ensure that an across-the-board national government is formed. Until and unless Afghanistan evolves a new social contract, peace will remain a far cry. So is the case with militants on the other side of the Durand Line. The fact that they act in coordination is a grim reminder of the fact that the intelligence shared by the coalition troops is faulty. It has to be beefed up, and another earnest effort made to woo the local tribes.
The chaos in the region should be dealt with comprehensively, with the sole intention of making it independent of foreign interventions. Geography, history and culture must take to the centrestage, and it is high time the ground realities were harnessed to find an amicable way out of the crisis.
The talks that the US administration had undertaken with the second-tier leadership of the Taleban could have clicked had there not been preconditions from both sides. The way to go forward is a dialogue with the stakeholders, and an immediate halt to jingoistic acts. Drones will only shed such initiatives into pieces.
Corttesy of Column Khaleej Times