Page 12 - The Indian EYE 092421

OPINION SEPTEMBER 17, 2021 | The Indian Eye 12

hile the Biden admin- the afghan Quagmire
ManOj KuMar Mishra

istration has exposed
Wthe futility of Ameri- and american Failure
can intervention and 20 years
of engagement at one stroke
by withdrawing troops from Af- The Taliban after being able to push a superpower out of Afghan soil
ghanistan, the previous admin-
istrations were only postpon- must have encouraged many other jihadi groups to become confident about

ing the revelation of American their capabilities to fulfil their objectives
failure by maintaining a level of
troops and resources that was
sufficient to hide its failure but
were not enough for successful
stabilisation programme. Af-
ghanistan’s tough geography,
its historical strive for indepen-
dence from occupation and de-
sire for neutrality as well as hos-
tile neighbourhood played their
part in turning the country into a
graveyard for interveners again.
The US and allied forces,
much like the erstwhile USSR, and collusion with warlords led led Beijing to host a Taliban del- The Taliban after being able
became a victim of the asym- to corrupt practices which con- egation including Abdul Ghani to push a superpower out of Af-
metric warfare that the hills and tinued to sap the strength of the Baradar, the Taliban representa- ghan soil must have encouraged
difficult terrain of Afghanistan Afghan Army. tive in Qatar. many other jihadi groups to be-
facilitate. While for the inter- The Americans’ hubris and CPEC is a part of the larg- come confident about their ca-
vening forces the Afghan theater belief in the superiority of their er connectivity project—Belt pabilities to fulfil their objectives.
provided a limited-war scenario military capabilities blinded and Road Initiative—that the The British and Czarist Empires
linked with certain political out- them to the complexities of US considered a geo-politi- and later the Soviet Union
comes, it presented a total-war asymmetric warfare in a differ- cal threat and criticised it on and now the US have failed to
scenario for the insurgents, who ent and complex cultural and many grounds. At times, there achieve their desired objectives
considered the war as the deter- geographical situation. Support were instances of convergence in Afghanistan. The country’s
minant of the very question of from Tajik and Uzbek warlords of interests among the region- impassable terrain, society deep-
their survival. was not sufficient to defeat the al powers, which stood at vari- ly embedded in religious values,
Afghan insurgents have Taliban, who hailed from and ance with Washington’s war and balance of power among exter-
proved former US diplomat lived with the masses from the peace plan in Afghanistan. For nal players on account of their
and politician Henry Kissinger’s predominant ethnic communi- instance, while the US was fo- conflicting geo-political objec-
maxim, “The guerrilla wins if he ty—the Pashtuns. cusing more on the threat posed tives and aversion of people to-
does not lose; the conventional While Islamabad was more by the Taliban, Pakistan, Russia wards foreign occupation turned
army loses if it does not win.” inclined to spread its influence and China emphasised more on the country into a graveyard for
Immediately following the in Afghanistan as part of its combating the ISIS threat. In all great powers.
intervention, Washington relied strategy of acquiring strategic one of the tripartite meetings in
on local warlords to stabilise Af- depth against India and to at- Moscow they agreed to remove Manoj Kumar Mishra is a Lec-
ghanistan rather than making tain that objective it maintained specific Taliban figures from the turer in Political Science at SVM
efforts at building a national Af- close contacts with Afghan in- US sanctions list. Autonomous College, Jagatsing-
ghan army or police force. The surgents, New Delhi considered In sum, it can be said that the hpur, Odisha
problems of poppy cultivation an all-out fight against terrorism foreign troops on ground along Views expressed are of the au-
and drug trafficking were over- under the rubric of “War on Ter- with the Afghan army support-
looked by the US on account ror” not only as a means to re- ed by the US airpower fought thor and do not necessarily
of its dependence on warlords. duce cross-border terrorism and against the Taliban and other reflect the views of the Manohar
Both in security and develop- militancy in Kashmir, but also to jihadi groups inconclusively for Parrikar IDSA or of the Govern-
ment of India.
ment sectors, “there were few safeguard its presence and inter- the last two decades. The asym-
efforts to engage Afghanistan’s ests in Afghanistan and Central metric warfare resulted in many This is the abridged version of
tribes, sub-tribes, clans, and Asia as well. The Chinese inter- civilian casualties but with no the article which appeared first
other local institutions”, accord- est in protecting and extending visible battlefield success for the in the Comment section of the
ing to Seth Jones, who worked the China–Pakistan Economic Afghan army. Afghanistan is website (www.idsa.in) of Mano-
closely with US Special Oper- Corridor as well as its concerns apparently now where it was 20 har Parrikar Institute for Defense
ations Forces in Afghanistan. over Uyghur insurgency in Xin- years ago even after decades of Studies and Analyses, New Del-
Insincerity in American efforts jiang province must have also rebuilding efforts. hi on September 21, 2021

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