7/23/2019 Afghanistan-Ghost War, Ghost Peace-Daily Times

1/2

, August 13, 2015

Afghanistan: Ghost War, Ghost Peace

Dr Mohammad Taqi

The Afghan people are getting angrier rather than feeling terrorised. Influentialvoices within Afghanistan are calling for their government to take the issue of Talibansanctuaries east of the Durand Line to the United Nations

Over the past several days, Kabul city experienced one of the worst waves ofterrorist attacks during the present Afghan conflict. It started with a massive truckbombing in the small hours of Friday morning in the Shah Shaheed district. Theapparent target was an Afghan intelligence complex but 15 civilians perished anddozens mostly women and children were injured in the attack, which reportedlydestroyed almost a full city block. Later during the day a suicide bomber killed 29cadets right outside the police academy when he blew himself up. The third attack of

the day targeted the US special forces headquarters killing one US personnel andeight Afghans. And then at noon, on Monday, another suicide car bomber struckoutside the Hamid Karzai International Airport, killing five people and injuring over adozen. The string of attacks had the Haqqani terrorist network written virtually allover it.

With the Afghan Taliban just having chosen their new emir (head), MullahMohammed Akhtar Mansoor, and deputy emir, Sirajuddin Haqqani, on Pakistani soilby most accounts, it was inevitable that Afghan President Dr Ashraf Ghani wouldlambast Pakistan for failing to put a leash on assorted Taliban groups. Within hoursof the airport attack Dr Ashraf Ghani held a press conference laying the blamesquarely on Pakistans doorsteps. Dr Ghani, who is recuperating from foot surgery,spoke while sitting down with his war cabinet lined up behind him. He spoke in boththe Afghan national languages Dari Persian and Pashto and minced no wordsabout whom and from where death is raining on the Afghans. Dr Ghanis scathingcritique of Pakistans policy vis--vis the Taliban was a clear departure from his 10-month-long diplomatic overtures to Pakistans civil and military leadership. He spokeresolutely but came across as someone feeling betrayed and profoundly incensed.The Afghan president said: Pakistan still remains a venue and ground for gatheringsfrom which mercenaries send us messages of war. The incidents of the past twomonths in general and the recent days in particular show that suicide training camps

and bomb making facilities used to target and murder our innocent people stilloperate, as in the past, in Pakistan.

Dr Ashraf Ghanis speech and press conference indicate that after fighting the waragainst the ghost of Mullah Omar he is not willing to accept the ghost peacepresented to him a la the Murree talks. No doubt, in diplomacy one holds ones cardsclose to their chest till an opportune moment but outright deceit like conducting warand peace in the name of a dead man was simply not going to fly. Following thattreachery with a barrage of attacks inside the Afghan capital seems to have justcompounded Kabuls deep mistrust of both Pakistans motives and its ability todeliver on the pledges it has made. The Pakistani leaderships mantra that it is

desirous of an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process comes across as anabject farce when Taliban leaders live and die both politically and physically onits soil. Some Pakistani analysts and newspaper editorials seem to make light of DrAshraf Ghanis blistering remarks and have dismissed them as something he had todo for domestic consumption. These pundits, unfortunately, underestimate the

7/23/2019 Afghanistan-Ghost War, Ghost Peace-Daily Times

2/2

Afghan anger at the murder and mayhem unleashed on them and Dr Ghanis angerat being double-crossed. Unless there is an immediate and verifiable change inPakistans policy of allowing sanctuary to the Afghan Taliban any change in DrGhanis new geopolitical posture is extremely unlikely.

The Afghan people, parliament and intelligentsia have thrown their full weight behindDr Ashraf Ghani while that countrys chief executive, Dr Abdullah Abdullah, hasreiterated his presidents sentiments in a separate interview saying that he has seenno evidence of Pakistan changing its tack. The problem is that the one-trick jihadistpony that Pakistan backs is simply not capable of changing into a political outfit,which could compete even in a primordial, collective decision-making process like atribal jirga let alone in an electoral democracy. The Kabul bombings indicate that thenew Taliban leadership is trying to remain relevant and assert itself against itsjihadist rivals as well as the Afghan people and the government through the onlymeans they know: violent terrorism. Both the Taliban and their patrons seemoblivious of the diminishing political returns from these gruesome assaults. TheAfghan people are getting angrier rather than feeling terrorised. Influential voiceswithin Afghanistan are calling for their government to take the issue of Taliban

sanctuaries east of the Durand Line to the United Nations. And such robustinternational diplomacy is what it may eventually boil down to.

Afghanistan does not have a military option and using any tit-for-tat proxies is apatently bad idea that would gain little but cause loss of the moral high ground. DrAshraf Ghani built a case for peace through what he described the concentric circlesengaging regional and then international powers. He may just have to use the sametemplate to internationalise the Taliban sanctuaries issue. China, India, Iran, Russiaand the Central Asian countries have no desire whatsoever for the Taliban or anyother jihadist outfit upending the democratic order in Kabul. Pakistans diplomaticposition is likely to become untenable even with China if the former cannot or does

not restrain the Taliban. The USs functionaries, especially its Department of State,cannot play dumb endlessly. The State Departments spokespersons remarks, in thewake of the Kabul attacks on how it is in the urgent interest of both countries toeliminate safe havens and to reduce the operational capacity of the Taliban on bothsides of the border are patently disingenuous and create a false equivalence.

Major questions have arisen about the US knowing about but playing down MullahOmars presence and then death in Pakistan. The US letting a terrorist outfit keepthe appearance of a unified force under a figurehead, who was suspected dead, wastruly a weird way of prosecuting the war against the Taliban while the latter attackedand killed US troops. The State Department can choose to eat out of the palm of

Pakistans hand but it certainly cannot tell Afghans to do that. The Murree peaceprocess that the US diplomats sat through was a dud; the ghost of Mullah Omarcould make war but certainly cannot make peace. To stop the cycle of ghost war andghost peace imposed upon Afghanistan the international community, including theUS, will have to hold Pakistans feet to the diplomatic fire. Dr Ashraf Ghani has anuphill task ahead but his straight talk indicates he is not only gearing up for it but thatspeech may also be his roadmap.

The writer can be reached at mazdaki@me.com and he tweets @mazdaki