End of a mini World War!
The mission of NATO in Afghanistan has officially ended on Sunday 28th December 2014. The ceremony of ending the mission of the largest military forces mission in Afghanistan, who was going to eradicate terrorism, was held secretly and without any prior announcement in a sports hall, because of the fear of secret attacks of the Taliban.
It is interesting that General John Campbell’s speech was not directly broadcasted because of security reasons, and Barak Obama also twitted his relevant message through twitter.
In addition to announcing the conclusion of the mission, he said that the war was coming to a responsible conclusion. On the other hand, Gen. Campbell appreciated the “Achieved Progress” in Afghanistan that was achieved by the foreign forces during last thirteen years, and said that they got Afghan Nation out of disappointment and ignorance and gave hope and future to them. Appreciating the ones who fought in Afghanistan in last thirteen years said that they have strengthened Afghanistan and brought peace to their countries.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg claimed that “terrorism could not run and find safe place in Afghanistan, for millions of Afghans have got foundation for a better future”. If it is true, so he should be asked that why did they take the ceremony of closure of their mission in Afghanistan in one of their bases, and why was it held secretly from the fear of the Taliban’s attacks?!
Did the foreign forces succeed?
Thirteen years ago ISAF stepped into Afghanistan with the slogan of coordination; later on it was the term of NATO to enter Afghanistan directly. The NATO combat mission in Afghanistan was NATO’s first mission out of Europe.
It was a special mission for NATO. NATO was established after the World War ll to counter the Soviet Union’s influence on the Warsaw Pact. The alliance forces were trained for war confrontation between the countries that form stable battles; but in Afghanistan they faced a guerilla war. The guerillas that experienced war against the Red Army, which was more equipped compared to the guerillas, their tactic was fight and flight. One of the factors that could offset the weakness of the arms of guerrillas against the NATO was their mobility in the mountains against the heavily armed foreign forces.
Though the foreign forces claim that they won the war in Afghanistan, but the war in the country is still going on, and today the Taliban are much stronger compared to the time when the foreign forces came to Afghanistan to defeat them. The amount of the production of narcotics is also multiplied compared to 2001.
Bloody and Futile War:
During this war, and the time to uproot the Taliban, the war was at its peak, and there were up to 130,000 forces from 50 countries of the world. All the countries that cooperated Afghan Jihad against the Soviet Union, participated in the war against the Taliban. The Afghan war could be called the World War in a small range.
There was approximately one trillion US Dollars spent in the war, and based on some formal statistics that are published by some international reliable sources, there were 3485 foreign soldiers killed and thousands of them were disabled in this war. There are not formal statistics available about the casualties of Afghans, but the casualties of Afghans are called to be more than two hundred thousand.
It is planned that the NATO combat mission will be replaced with the strong support to the aim of training and consultation to 350 thousands Afghan forces. It is planned that 12500 soldiers from 40 countries will participate in this mission.
It seems that the longest war in the history of the U.S. has ended, but for the people of Afghanistan, the war still continues. The question is, if the foreign forces really leave Afghanistan in 2016, will the Taliban, who resisted against the presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan for last thirteen years, will stop war or not?
The Taliban Should Decide:
We accept that, as the previous times, this super power lost the aims of reaching its goals in Afghanistan, but if breaking the super power cannot bring peace, prosperity and better future for Afghan nation, and we are still involved in the war, the winning would not be a proud for us.
It seems that there is something going on behind the closed doors; the U.S. declaration of removal of Mullah Mohammad Omar’s name from the US blacklist and announcing that if the Taliban are not direct threat to the U.S. interests, they are not their enemies anymore, are positive signals given to the Taliban to get ready for peace negotiation. Though the Taliban counted the B.S.A. as continuing of war, but recently it seems that it is not more valuable than the ones of Geneva, which paved the way for the dignified withdrawal of the Soviet forces, and the Taliban believe that signing the B.S.A. was the way to hide the failure of the U.S. war in Afghanistan.
The Taliban have to get ready for the complete withdrawal of the foreign forces from the country up to the end of 2016. Withdrawal of the foreign troops and ending the invasion of Afghanistan will take away the motivation of war from the warriors, and the internal and external aid will stop.
So the Taliban have to think about the future, and decide for joining the peace process. Though the Taliban continue war with their best efforts, they also have active diplomacy. Maybe, very soon, they will agree to open their office in Qatar without their flag and the name of Islamic Emirate, and they will start peace negotiations with the U.S.
The international assurance for the withdrawal of foreign forces up to the end of 2016 will pave the way for the peace talk between the Taliban and the Afghan Government in Kabul, and it is expected that the first steps toward peace would be taken through this way.
The End