Editorial: A ghastly war

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The menace of terrorism has been plaguing Afghanistan, like a disease without panacea, and made it so intricate and intriguing for the West – the protagonists of this ghastly war – to annihilate the pillars of terrorism which marches on unabated. This pseudo war is taking lives in thousands. The spiraling chaos raises the quintessential question of whether terrorism is unconquerable or peace could ever be achieved.

The U.S. as a superpower has to maintain balance here by suppressing extremism which threatens security of neighboring countries. But after the US enters a country under any excuse – be it to institutionalize democracy in dictator regimes or to intervene in an internecine conflict – the occupied land becomes at times largely infested with the phenomena of terrorism and flare-up of ambitious yet notorious fighters and an increasingly downgraded rule of law. Afghanistan very well experienced it.

After the Daesh was debilitated in Iraq and Syria, there has been an influx of IS terrorists into Afghanistan to deteriorate security situation and topple the democratic government. Moreover, Islamabad’s harboring and feting of terrorists and its perpetual state of denial coincides with Washington’s blind eye to the ground realities. The United States is deliberately ignoring the Pakistan threat and fooling us under the pretext of war against terror. Washington has sided with the wrong country in the war on terrorism, because there is no denying that Islamabad is sheltering notorious Qaeda leaders in its safe houses, located in garrison cities. Terrorism, in essence, serves as an excuse to prolong their stay in the occupied countries.

The West is injecting imposed wars on conflicted nations to proliferate its weapons sales. The perception that terrorism has become a pretext for the modern world to sell weapons seems cent percent true. From sand bags to light and heavy armored vehicles, the protective gears have occupied minds of politicians and security officials of the third world countries as they feel they are no safer in their home countries where once people were at peace. Afghanistan is depending on foreign largesse and support on war on terror. Though, the United States has military bases in many of these countries, but terrorism keeps marching on, becoming more dangerous.

Peace efforts have also been tantalizing us for years, bringing its failure at par with anti-terror fiasco. Foreign defense largesse may be a game-changer for Afghanistan; but precedent to that is a rigid counterterrorism strategy to wipe the roots of terrorism out.