Taliban still on ground after 9-yr Afghan war

KABUL: It is nine years ago that Afghanistan was invaded and today, that Afghanistn is entering tenth year of its war; however, Al-Qaeda and Taliban could not be uprooted from the country, Geo News reported Thursday.

Peace is still a dream yet to be realized in the country.

The war in Afghanistan enters its 10th year on Thursday with key players hedging their bets, uncertain whether the Obama administration is prepared to stay for the long haul, move quickly to exit an increasingly unpopular conflict, or something in between.

Fearing that his Western allies may in the end abandon him, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has started to prepare his nation for a withdrawal of international forces by shoring up relations with neighbours and reaching out to insurgents interested in reconciliation. There have been other important junctures, but this ninth anniversary is proving decisive.

It’s go-for-broke time in Afghanistan. Public support for the war is slipping in the US and Western Europe. Already, the Netherlands has pulled out its troops, the first NATO country to do so. The Canadians leave next. Patience is running out here as well. Afghans are tired of the violence, increasingly resentful of foreign forces. Many wonder why their quality of life has not markedly improved when their nation has been awash in billions of dollars of foreign aid.

“NATO is here and they say they are fighting terrorism, and this is the 10th year and there is no result yet,” Karzai said in an emotional speech last week. “Our sons cannot go to school because of bombs and suicide attacks.” All this is very different from the near universal international support the Bush administration enjoyed when it launched attacks on Oct 7, 2001.

The war was aimed at toppling the Taliban from power because they harboured Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders responsible for the stunning strikes on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon less than a month earlier. The hardline regime, which repressed women, banned music and held public executions for disloyal actions, collapsed within two months.

But looking back at the first years of the war, the effort was under-funded from the start. When the Bush administration’s attention shifted to Iraq in 2003, the Taliban began to regroup. After several years of relative calm and safety, the situation in Afghanistan began to deteriorate around 2006. The Taliban have steadily gained strength since then. And bin Laden remains alive.

President Barack Obama ramped up the war this year, sending tens of thousands more troops. Casualties are running at their highest levels since 2001, when the Taliban were overthrown without a single American combat death. The US death toll in July was 66, setting a monthly record; to date, about 2,000 NATO troops have died in the conflict, including more than 1,220 American service men and women.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said in June that the US and its NATO partners have to show progress before the end of this year or face a decline in public support for the war. There’s plenty of frustration at the White House and in the US Congress too. In August, when Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, visited Kabul, he bluntly stated that if the Karzai government didn’t clean up corruption, it was going to be hard to look American families in the eye.

There are signs that governance is improving, though troops still face daily gunbattles and an entrenched insurgency that shows no signs of easing soon. Afghan and international forces now are ramping up security in neighbouring Kandahar province where the Taliban insurgency was born. Fighting in and around the nation’s largest city in the south has been intense as coalition forces push into areas long held by insurgents. Failure in Kandahar would be a major setback for the NATO force.

The Soviet Union invaded and occupied Afghanistan in 1979 but was forced to withdraw nine years later by anti-communist mujahedeen forces, who were supplied and trained by the US and others. These US-backed rebels took power in 1992 when the pro-Moscow government collapsed. They quickly turned their guns on each other and a violent civil war ensued. The Taliban took advantage of the power vacuum and within two years had seized Kabul.

US President Barack Obama said he would continue to pursue his administration’s policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan, stressing that successful implementation of the current strategy in America’s interest.

“We are continuing to implement the policy as described in December (last year) and do not believe further adjustments are required at this time,” he said in a letter to Congress.

Obama’s letter accompanied a classified report to Congress, which covers the period ending June 30, 2010 and provides an update on assessment since that date.

“As the Congress continues its deliberations on the way ahead in Afghanistan and Pakistan, I want to continue to underscore our Nation’s interests in the successful implementation of this policy.”

Obama announced his new strategy on December 1, 2009 after his administration completed a ‘thorough’ policy review. Under the policy, the United States deployed 30,000 additional troops in Afghanistan in order to curb Taliban insurgency.

The US President Barack Obama and his war cabinet held a video conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, focusing on the drive to put Afghan forces in charge of security by 2014.

The White House revealed the rare link-up between the two leaders late on Monday, adding that Obama was joined on the high powered call by his secretaries of state and defense and top civilian and military officials.

“The two leaders agreed that they should continue routine engagements to refine a common vision and to align our efforts to support President Karzai’s goal of completing transition to Afghan lead security responsibility by 2014.”