Daily Times

Finally it has dawned on the US that it is not its responsibility to make Afghanistan “a perfect place” and the country should be managed in the future by its own people. This transfer of ‘ownership’ after fighting a 12-year-long war — the longest in the history of wars fought by the US, is a question mark on the wisdom of the US to intrude into areas it never belonged in in the first place. What had the US been doing in Afghanistan all these years if it were eventually to be left to the Afghans to run their country? And why did it take the US 12 years to come to this realisation? Afghanistan is not in a much better state than it was 12 years ago. The insurgency has multiplied; the Taliban are back, and the al Qaeda factor has not been fully eliminated. Not to forget the repercussions of this war on Pakistan, which is now fighting its own home grown militancy as a result of becoming a frontline US ally in the war against terrorism. Terrorism, in fact, has multiplied across the world, leave alone in Afghanistan.

Bush started the Afghan and Iraq wars almost simultaneously, considering both the countries the domains of terrorism. One allegedly had weapons of mass destruction and the other Osama bin Laden. Neither could the US locate the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, nor could it trace Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Iraq was left by the US on the same basis that it had had enough of the US intervention. Today Iraq has become a festering wound of the Middle East. But for the US it was simply a miscalculation. Is it that simple to walk out of a war, because suddenly the invading party realises it to be the wrong step? Is not the US responsible for the chaos both in Iraq and Afghanistan? Does being a superpower mean irrational and irresponsible global ‘policing’ without accountability?

Obama won his first presidential election on a platform of ending the wars started by Bush. On Iraq he acted faster than Afghanistan, which according to him needed more attention. The Afghan war would be wound down by 2014, and only a residual army of 9,800 US soldiers to train and support the Afghan army will be left behind until 2016. In spite of presenting himself as a no-war president during both his election campaigns, Obama could not refrain from stumbling into new wars, be it in Libya, Syria, or now in many parts of Africa. All of these interventions have been checkmated by other actors, rendering impotent to a large extent the superpower syndrome. These realities should be enough for the US to finally realise that it cannot anymore adorn itself with the mantle of policeman of an increasingly complex world. *