The A-war

In 1979, as Soviet Tanks rolled into Afghanistan, the might of the Capitalist West united under the leadership of US to turn Afghanistan into the Soviet Union's Vietnam. With every passing year, the US and its allies, notably Saudi Arabia pumped in money to create the Frankenstein's monster they called Mujaheddin. With every Soviet helicopter downed and Soviet soldier killed, the Mujaheddin gained prestige and power. The Soviets pumped money and resources, but they were no match for the Afghans, indoctrinated against the godless Communists in Pakistani refugee camps. Then, Gorbachev came to power and winds of change started blowing across the Soviet Union. Afghanistan suddenly became a black hole from which the Soviets desperately wanted to extricate themselves. The Geneva accords were hastily concluded and the last Soviet soldier walked out of Afganistan in 1989, bringing the war to an abrupt end. 

The war came to an end, but the suffering continued. Afghanistan found itself with millions of armed zealots who wanted to preach the word of Allah at gunpoint. Within Afghanistan, they fought government and each other, but they felt stifled, as if their wings had been cut. In the meanwhile, the Soviet behemoth collapsed and the façade of unity that had bound the so-called 'Unbreakable Union of the free republics' fell apart. The Armenians and Azerbaijanis were at each other's throats and the Muslim Caucasus was on fire. At about the same time, Yugoslavia imploded with Serbs, Croats and Bosnians ravaging each other. The Mujaheddin suddenly found themselves a job. Much like the Iranian revolution had spread political Islam in the Middle East, the Mujaheddin sought to promote their brand of Salafi, Saudi-style Islam to the newly liberated Muslim territories of the past. Bands of Mujaheddins swooped into Bosnia, Chechnya, Dagestan, Uzbekistan and even far away Somalia to create a Grand Islamic Emirate, a la Caliphate of the Islamic Golden period. Backed by their financiers in Saudi Arabia and their mentors in Pakistan, the Mujaheddins proliferated their ideas to unemployed and disenchanted Muslim youth in Europe, Asia and Africa, creating terrorists who ultimately struck at the heart of America on 9/11. From Kashmir to Kent, radicalized youth made terrorism a very live and real threat.

The US invaded Afghanistan to avenge for the 9/11 attacks within 12 years of Soviet withdrawal. The tables had now turned. Friends had become implacable foes. For more than a decade now, US and its NATO allies have propped up the Karzai regime, much like the Soviet backed regimes of Karmal and Najibullah. Obama now says that the Afghans must take control of their destiny. He wants the allies out of Afghanistan by next year, leaving behind a weak, venal and inefficient administration that will probably collapse within months of US withdrawal, if the Taliban choose to attack. With Afghanistan once again in the hands of the Taliban, history will repeat itself. An entire swathe of territory from South Asia to Europe will be destabilized. More blood will be spilled in the streets of Grozny, Srinagar, Mogadishu, even London and Paris and probably even Islamabad and Riyadh.

The Americans must not repeat the mistake made by Soviets a quarter of century ago. Afghanistan must be stabilized as a modern, prosperous and strong nation capable of looking after its own interests and handling its treacherous southern neighbor. A failed Afghanistan, once again, will be too costly a proposition for the world.