Afghanistan Times
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It’s welcoming that the White House has started weighing adjusting exit plan to slow withdrawal of forces. The slow withdrawal is particulary meaningul in a situation when the country is bleeding profusedly, when the government officials say they have resumed peace talks while the Taliban representatives deny it. The situation is quite murky. The Taliban on their official website on February 24 denied talks with the Afghan government. Until peace talks succeed, more blood is going to be spilled. More mothers to be made sonsless. And more children orphaned. More wives widowed. The scene is bloody. The spectators don’t want to watch but they are forced as they don’t have any other thing to watch. It’s such a movie that is live and on the ground. The viewers want to forget it but the war movie has been dogging them all. The movie ran in three parts. Part one was regarding the onslaught on then USSR on Afghanistan. Part second touched upon the emergence of Mujahideen to be replaced by the Taliban. And in the third phase the Taliban had to escape as they didn’t have the capacity to stand the US carpet bombings. And the third phase is still going on. In this movie, reluctantly people watch, smokes billowing from the scenes of sucide blasts, markets being targetted, schools shut, roads closed, bridges exploded, graveyards attacked, and civilians mutilated in IEDs. None could say with surety what will be the end—happy ending or blood will keep spilling. This movie has made the watchers war weary. However, they look to be too hapless. When flood comes and the water is highly turbid, the fish lose their sight. Same is happening. Majority has lost the vision— a vision that can make them victorious. Many of us have seen how Afghanistan became the center stage of bloodshed and mayhem. They have seen atrocities of 90s. And they have seen the carpet bombings of the US. But some of us talk of the ISIS. Still they hoist their flags. On one side they condemn brutalities of the Taliban while at the same time hoist the black flags of ISIS. What is it other than extreme confusion and a state of abberance. In such a time, withdrawing troops is not only reversing the gains made during the past 14 years but at the same time leaving the United States prone to attacks once again. Since the United States has waged war on terror it will have to take it to its logical end. At times of crisis, sometimes a visionary leader even loses farsightedeness, but it doesn’t mean there is no room for correction in politics. The Obama administration earlier decided it wants to pullout its troops, however after earning criticism from Republicans and the government in Afghanistan, Washington is considering slowing its planned withdrawal for the second time. This decision, on one side is the acceptance of fallibility of the US security plans and on the other side a sign of the realization of the significant security challenges that still remain despite an end to the international combat mission.
