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Afghanistan:

The Forgotten War



President  Hamid Karzai

The forgotten war is back on the screen. Its rising death toll has rudely awakened the world. On Tuesday a blast killed NATO soldier on patrol in southern Afghanistan. An official statement said that it occurred in Nahri Sarraj, a district of Helmand province.

The fighting between Taliban-led militants and NATO Security Forces is surging across the south and east of Afghanistan. Tuesday’s death brought the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan this month to 35.

Iraq took away the focus from Afghanistan. The world is taking a closer look again. The two wars have left the Forces “stretched beyond the capabilities we have,” Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup said.

It is the first time the most senior officer in the British military has expressed such grave doubts about the struggle faced by troops fighting wars on two fronts. Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup of UK said that fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan wars have stretched the forces beyond their capacities.

NATO Forces

Some of the NATO countries involved in this exercise have spoken rather harshly of the situation there. Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier publicly had called for the Afghan government to fire the governor of Kandahar, the province to which 2,500 Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) troops are deployed.

He had to withdraw his comments later stating that he had never intended to impinge on Afghanistan’s right as a sovereign nation to choose its own government personnel.


NATO soldiers get out of thier vehicle in Arghandab on June 25. Arghandab is a Kandahar southern province freed from Taliban by Afghan military forces with help of NATO. US-led air strikes killed 22 Taliban militants who attacked two towns in Afghanistan with rockets on Wednesday, while two more international soldiers died in explosions. AFP

Afghans deserve a bigger share of the public square. They had suffered immense hardships during the past five years. The NATO countries in this conflict are struggling to focus on what needs to be done.

The tough stand taken by Canadian Minister Bernier is getting the full respect it deserves. NATO partners are demanding greater accountability by Afghan President Hamid Karzai. They have stated that he should work in concert in order to get achieve some progress. Kandahar is a bone of contention. Its governor has been under fire.

According to media reports, Canadian officials had been privately pressing the Afghan government to Kandahar governed better.

Karzai is in a bind. If he stays wit the status quo he would seem oblivious to the criticism that had been made. But if he makes a change it will be obvious to Afghans where the real power lies.

Canada’s role in Afghanistan is considered crucial. It has a large force deployed to Kandahar, the historic center of the Taliban where the Karzai government faces opposition.

The CAF has sent 15 officers to various departments of the Afghan government, including the president’s office, to serve as advisors. Karzai cannot afford to lose that help.

Most critics agree that greater democratization is an urgent need. The Canadian government is trying hard to achieve such a move.

Conservative Prime Minster Stephen Harper has championed Canada’s leading role in cleaning up things there.

Taliban

The recent statement of Prime Minister Harper is very clear: “We have talked to the government of Afghanistan from time to time about concerns on the performance of that government and we will continue to talk to them from time to time.”

Is Canada competing with the US for a greater share of influence in that region ? Canada may be getting away from the notion that the role it plays in the Afghan war is not as a peace keeper but a key partner sharing the burden of success with all others in the NATO.

Several media outlets had toyed with the idea that Canada was now a fully pledged partner in the global war on terror.

This is a portrayal of the Canadian armed forces as a fighting force, a modern and fully capable tool in its diplomatic efforts.

The opinion inside the United States also favours a faster answer to the problems there. Some of the Republicans had criticized Senator Barrack Obama who was the chair of a senate committee on Afghanistan for not holding any hearings under his stewardship.

International observers seem to think that NATO Armed Forces are fighting to prevent the country falling back under the theocratic dictatorship of the Taliban. The attack on 9/11 precipitated this war. If not for that event the US and British troops would not been sent there.

The Taliban endorsed al-Qaeda’s war on the West. NATO is now saddled with a major war on their hands. Those who have sent troops there are hedging their actions with so many restrictions that they cannot discharge any role effectively. That reluctance is key to the present impasse seriously jeopardizing the whole Afghan operation.

The British, we are told have to do far more than their fair share of fighting as a consequence of it, and it is becoming increasingly clear that the strains are having a destructive effect, according to most observers.

Over 10,000 British troops are over-worked and may be not be 100 per cent combat ready according to critics. The latest reports indicate that NATO leaders are likely to approve an increase in troop deployments to Afghanistan, the head of the military alliance said Wednesday. NATO has maintained that the war in Afghanistan is being prosecuted according to plan.

General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said recently that NATO is close to having the number of troops it needs for Afghanistan, where 47,000 foreign troops take part in the NATO-led mission.

Resurgent

The US President had repeated calls to NATO members to send more troops. He was citing a recent recording from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden that threatens attacks on Europe, Bush said the war in Afghanistan must be won.

Some feel that U.S. and NATO forces are battling a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan nearly seven years after al Qaeda’s 2001 terrorist attacks on US soil, Though 25 NATO allies and 13 other countries have contributed forces, the bulk of the recent fighting has been done by U.S., Canadian, British and Dutch troops.

The internal NATO disagreements also center on risk-sharing, with some countries contributing troops but keeping them out of the tough fighting in southern Afghanistan.

 

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