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Thursday, May 24, 2012

Afghanistan: Cut and Run Is the Worst Option, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad
Afghanistan: Cut and Run Is the Worst Option
By Amir Taheri

The problem is further complicated because the insurgents can always use the vast deserts stretching into Pakistan’s Balochistan and Iranian Sistan as a hinterland in which to hide, recuperate and rearm.

To make matters worse, the sphere of lawlessness now stretches into virtually the whole of southeast Iran and large chunks of Pakistani Balochistan. On the Iranian side, a growing armed insurgency by Sistani and Balochi tribes is diverting the attention of the authorities from monitoring the border with Afghanistan. On the Pakistani side, the recent killing by government forces of Akbar Bugti, the veteran Baloch nationalist leader, in his mountain hideout, has generated a new upsurge of sympathy for anti-West groups, including the Taleban. To all that must be added the fact that large numbers of Afghan peasants depend on poppy cultivation for their survival. Many Afghans, therefore, see NATO’s policy of eradication as a threat to their livelihood.

If the new insurgency spreads and NATO casualties mount, we shall soon hear voices urging a quick conclusion to what some in the West already see as a costly adventure. Unlike the intervention in Iraq, that has always had strong critics in the West, the toppling of the Taleban in Afghanistan was generally accepted as a just response to the 9/11 attacks against the United States. That, however, does not mean that Western public opinion’s threshold of pain is limitless. Do not be surprised to see editorials in Europe and North America calling on NATO to throw in the towel and let the Afghans fight it out among themselves.

Cut and run, however, is the worst of all options. Allowing parts of Afghanistan to become rebel territory could destabilize both Pakistan and Iran, provoking ripples that could affect Central Asia and the Gulf region as well. Afghanistan needs three to four more years before its new army and police are strong enough to ensure government control over the national territory. In the meantime, NATO, operating under a mandate from the United Nations, has both the moral and legal duty of helping the new Kabul regime establish its authority.


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