US-Russia Efforts for Resolving The Afghan Conflict

Given the existing geopolitical and geo-economical factors, the old rivals of the East and the West Block i. e US and Russia have expedited the peace efforts to resolve the Afghan conundrum.

In this connection, Russia took the lead by hosting the peace Moot at Moscow in which all the regional player’s i.e Afghan Taliban and Afghan Peace Council members participated ,besides, there were also representatives from India and Pakistan to find the lasting solution for Afghan peace by taking all the stakeholders on board. Though the peace talks could not bear the fruit owing to the Taliban’s conditions demanding immediate US withdrawal from Afghanistan and amendments in the  Afghan Constitution.

Observing this move , US President , took a U-Turn from his  earlier stand in which he had twitter blitz against Pakistan but later on , wrote a Letter to PM Khan seeking help to reach agreement with the insurgent Taliban and bring them to the  negotiating table to settle the conflict  and find  political solution to end the longest war US ever fought .

Even, the Reshaping and Realignment of the Foreign Policy of Pakistan also worked for New PTI Government that has started bearing fruit.  Historically, the then Soviet Union’s disintegration was also the cause of Afghan Invasion and the present isolation of US at International level is also linked with US’ Invasion of Afghanistan that created hatred towards the US globally.

The history shows that both the superpowers tried to occupy Afghanistan but they both sustained heavy losses in their bid to gain hold of the territory.

Present Russia and the then Soviet Union’s Invasion of Afghanistan was also one of the longest war lasting over nine years and was started in  December 1979  and continued till 1989.

The Afghans have sufficient experience of fighting Gorilla war since they lacked the sophisticated weaponry for the war as well as modern-day artillery.Even lacked skills of modern warfare. On the contrary, the Soviet Union was well equipped having well-trained Military with high range weaponry, tanks, canons and other war-related logistics.

The Mujahideen also fought with Soviet Forces and with the Soviet union’s backed and installed Community Afghan Government. The Afghan mujahidin had a stronghold in rural areas since they enjoyed support from the local communities.

The insurgent groups were supported by the US to compel Soviet Union to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan. During the Afghan war, it is estimated that as many as hundreds of civilians were killed and millions fled to Pakistan and Iran as refugees.

 The Reason of war was the forcible expansion of Communism and communist ideologies in Afghanistan by bringing regime change in Afghanistan. The Soviet Union was able to install communist party after a deadly coup in the year 1978 when Soviet-backed communist Noor Mohammad Tamaki became the President of Afghanistan.

Coming into power, the communist Party reformed the system with radical concepts of modernization containing communist ideologies throughout the country which was severely criticized as it was the first time that communism was abortively being propagated with the support of Soviet Union.

Despite Resolutions of the OIC  and UN  against Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and the demand for immediate withdrawal,  the Soviet Union continued its offensive. The Big powers became the part of the game and the US started supporting   to Insurgent groups with support from local players in order to compel  Soviet Union to pull out its troops from Afghanistan  and especially US bid for  stopping the rapid spread of  communism to other parts of the region  since Soviet had installed  it’s  so-called communist party set up and radicalized the country with communist ideologies .

There were reports that Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had played a significant role in emphasizing U.S. influence in Afghanistan and supporting the military operations meant to frustrate the Soviet invasion and forcing them to mull over withdrawal from the occupied State Afghanistan.

The International community strongly condemned the Soviet Intervention in Afghanistan and consequently imposed numerous sanctions and restrictions against the then Soviet Union. 

After Bloody war in Afghanistan, The  Soviet Union under reformist leader Mikhail Gorbachev announced to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan.  After the announcement, the withdrawal of Soviet troops commenced in 1988 and subsequently ended in 1989.The fragile Afghan government was left alone to cope with the insurgents and fight with these forces. The Soviet Union’s failure in Afghan war later caused the fall of the Soviet Union.

Historically, it is proven that the Afghanistan Soil has always become the death trap for the foreign invaders especially the Soviet Union that resulted in its disintegration After the sequence of events on December 31, 1991. The former superpower was replaced by 15 independent countries such as  Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia,  Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,  Latvia, lithuania, Moldova, Russia,  Tajikistan,  Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

Similarly, after 9/11 incident of the  World Trade Centre, US President George .W.Bush announced to initiate air and ground strikes against Afghanistan since the insurgent Taliban regime had refused to hand over the Osama Bin Laden  to America  as  he(OBL)  was the most wanted Terrorist  and he was reportedly hiding in Afghanistan with the support of the then Afghan Taliban Government  .

On the excuse of such diplomatic matter, US-initiated strikes with the support of NATO Forces. Pakistan’s the then President General Musharraf played a sensible role to diffuse the tensions and the pressure from the superpower and agreed to provide Ground and aerial support since refusal in such circumstances might have led to war with Pakistan that might have been very devastating and destructive. Since Pakistan was asked by the US that whether Pakistan was with him or Not.

The US intentions for regime change in Afghanistan had succeeded temporarily  but unlike installing Pro US Regime of Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani, Taliban still survived the strikes and inflicted heavy losses to US-led forces in Afghanistan and still control a large area of Afghanistan still there is a bloodbath in Afghanistan and still  suicide blasts are very common  .

Despite waging the longest war of 17 years, US has failed miserably to control the insurgent forces to whom it had supported against Soviet Invasion. it was the plant sown by it decades ago that has been transformed into a fruited tree has become a jungle. The support to insurgency during the soviet-afghan war has become the failure of US   in Afghanistan.

The invasion of Afghanistan led to Disintegration of Soviet Union in 1991; America also feared such disintegration since it has failed miserably to suppress the Taliban (Religious insurgent  Forces) and seeking help from Pakistan to get rid of the Afghan Mess so that it may pull out its troops from Afghanistan after 17 Years of Stay. 

The US has succumbed to the internal and external pressure of being isolated from the world, given the multi-polarization of the world that raised eyebrows of the Trump Administration as it pursued aggressive foreign policy options towards  World Powers especially the Islamic Countries such as Turkey, Iran , Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

The foreign Policy Analysts and Former Diplomats had termed the Trump’s Twitter tirade as frustration and the criticism it has received from all the quarters that led to his humiliating defeat in Mid-term elections 2018 adding to great strength to its opposition party.

Receiving Strong response from New PTI regime under the leadership of Imran Khan, Trump changed its stance suddenly and wrote a letter to Pakistan for Helping US in Afghan Peace Process and bringing Taliban to negotiation Table. The gesture was widely appreciated and welcomed by the both Civil and Military leadership as Pakistan’s stance was accepted atlas since it always pressed for finding the political solution to Afghan conundrum. 

The recent direct talks between US and Taliban have led to the change of attitude in Trump Administration and there came a surprising announcement of pulling out US-Troops from Syria and Afghanistan. Though withdrawal announcement is too hasty and untimely as existing Ghani’s government is very weak to deal with the dismal security situation, yet the Afghan Government is of the view that they would manage it.

So, both invaders i.e US and Russia are taking key efforts to get the credit to maintain peace in Afghanistan. The efforts for peace are appreciable since  Pakistan is a peace loving country and lasting peace in Afghanistan will be beneficial to whole south Asian and central Asian regions including  Pakistan as the prime beneficiary.

Let’s hope for the best and release the caged Peace birds –The pigeons to spread the message of Peace and harmony after misery oppression and genocide of 17 years that destroyed the  infrastructural outlook and caused socio-economic degradation and currency depreciation due to  the prolonged war, making Life miserable for common people in Afghanistan. It will also pave the way for the repatriation of  Afghan Refugees present in India, Iran and Pakistan if the peace returns to their homeland.