Alive For Go-Ahead Men : A Delhi Press Magazine

After the leak in the American media, of the American Commanding General MacCrystal’s request to the American President for an additional 40,000 American troops, there has been intense speculation all over the world, in the last 3 months, of Nobel Peace laureate Obama's decision concerning this demand. On 2 Dec 2009, Obama finally announced a time-bound, conditional surge of additional troops to Afghanistan.

In his new, modified AF-PAK policy, Obama has decided to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, starting immediately.

NATO countries are supporting this move by adding 7,000 troops. This will bring the strength of American troops operating in Afghanistan to 1,00,000 and NATO troops to 43,000.

Alongside, Obama has officially fixed July 2011 as the date for America to start withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan. Keeping in view the fact that it will take about 6 months to transport, deploy and optimise the full potential of this large surge in Afghanistan, General MacCrystal will get just one year, to get his act going. A tall order indeed.

The 1st basic point in this new policy of Obama is to upgrade the training and modernise the weapons of the Afghan Army and Police, so that they can hold on their own against the Taliban. He feels, this will increasingly free American and NATO forces from the current counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan, paving their way to be shipped home.

The 2nd objective is to put pressure on the current Hamid Karzai Government of Afghanistan to get their act together and provide good governance and corruption-free administration to the people.

Currently, this Government enjoys the reputation of being most corrupt and inept. This is one reason why the local people find Taliban a better option. The tag, of Karzai being an American stooge, has also to be removed and Obama has given him a stern warning.

What is important to India is that Obama has rejected General MacCrystal's suggestion that, in order to allay Pak apprehensions concerning India in Afghanistan and its deep suspicion of India's increasing popularity, India should be asked to curtail its role there. It needs to be remembered that India is building a new Parliament building and a key strategic road, linking Afghanistan to the Arabian Sea via Iran, in addition to its help in enhancing agricultural production in Afghanistan. India has already committed upwards of 1.2 billion dollars in infrastructure work in Afghanistan.

In his new policy, Obama is additionally requesting India to help train Afghan Forces faster. There is also a possibility of request for Indian troops in Afghanistan on a futuristic perspective.

Theoretically sound

All this looks good from a theoretical point of view but advisors of Obama have missed the wood from trees so far as the ground situation goes. Afghanistan was and is always manageable; the real problem is Pakistan. It was the Pakistani Army and the ISI, who quietly gave a safe passage into Pakistan’s tribal areas (north and south Waziristan) to Osama Bin Laden and the Afghan Taliban, trapped in Tora Bora Mountains by the Americans, when they attacked Afghanistan in 2001.

Taliban made the local administrators flee and consolidated their hold in these tribal areas. American preoccupation in Iraq was a great help. This void in Afghanistan was further exploited by Pakistan. They accommodated Afghan Shura of Mullah Omar in and around Quetta Cantonment town of Baluchistan.

Haqqani brothers and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar group were hidden in North Waziristan. The Tehrik-e- Pakistan Taliban, which has revolted against their mentor, the Pakistani Army, ruled the roost in South Waziristan.

All this was done with a strong belief by the Pakistani Army and the ISI that the Americans will ultimately tire out and leave Afghanistan; then they will rule Afghanistan as before.

To hasten American departure, till date, Pakistan has been following the policy of hunting with the hounds and running with the hare.

Pakistani Army has been quietly instigating Afghan Shura and Taliban to attack American troops operating in Afghnistan. In the name of fighting against the Taliban and searching for Osama Bin Laden, they duped America of billions of dollars as aid, which they conveniently used to buy latest weapons against India. This fact has been recently accepted by General Musharraf, the ex-President of Pakistan, in a statement to a news channel. Despite this, America has again sanctioned 7.5 billion dollars of aid to Pakistan for next 5 years.

It is difficult to believe that America, the sole super power of the world and possessing one of the world's most well-equipped intelligence agency, the CIA, does not know what Pakistan is up to. The truth of the matter is that, it is not America which controls Pakistan; Pakistan is dominating America.

The entire American effort in Afghanistan is dependent on Pakistan because the supply lines of these forces run through Pakistan. Whenever America reads the riot act to Pakistan, America finds its supply trucks and supply dumps in Pakistan suddenly targeted by the jehadis. America knows that it can ill afford this.

Blatant tribals

Moreover, the entire Taliban effort against American troops operating in Afghanistan, originates from tribal areas of Pakistan. American troops are not allowed to enter this area; they need Pakistani Army for ground operations.

On their own, all they can do is to organise drone attacks. Even for this, Pakistan keeps protesting officially.

The problem with America is that, for the last 7 years of its involvement in Afghanistan, it is working on the faulty strategy: It hopes to turn around Pakistan to sincerely operate against the jehadis by convincing Pakistan that it is not India, but these jehadis, who are the biggest threat to the existence of Pakistan. To achieve this goal, America has been wooing the Pakistani Army and Government with abundant aid and tolerating all their tantrums.

In a recent survey conducted in Pakistan, it has become clear that the Pakistanis consider America and not India as their gravest threat. Only 18% Pakistanis consider India and 11% consider these jehadis, while a whopping 69% consider America as their biggest worry.