After 16 long years, there is tentative hope that the Afghan endgame might well be in sight; or at least vaguely visible on the distant horizon. Yet it will neither be of American making nor liking. Which may or may not explain the recent airing of old complaints from Kabul — and by extension Washington — regarding the Afghan Taliban being headquartered here in Pakistan. The same goes for Trump Town’s latest bombshell that US commanders are now ‘authorised’ to hit militant safe-havens on both sides of the Af-Pak border. Though the latter has since been somewhat retracted. Thus for the Pakistani state, the aforementioned at best represents nothing more than another smokescreen. All the better to deflect two developments that have irked the US; neither of which has anything to do with this country. The first is China’s pushing ahead with the construction of a military base in north-east Afghanistan along the Wakhan Corridor in Badakhshan province. This is the worst American nightmare come to life; given that Washington will see this as the gloves coming fully off in the battle for regional supremacy. Beijing, for its part, has legitimate security concerns over the restive provincial-level autonomous region of Xinjiang that borders eight countries; including Afghanistan and Pakistan. It’s also where the ethnic Uighur have long been waging a separatist struggle for an independent homeland. That this minority group is largely Muslim has attracted support from such terror outfits as ISIS. Thus it makes sense for China to have a military presence in a country where the latter is enjoying increased outreach and where the Taliban is said to be openly active in 70 percent of Afghanistan. Yet the Chinese also fear that the US is preparing to export terror to its mainland as well as to its near backyard in Central Asia; to pave the way for a prolonged and expanded military occupation. The second concerns the International Criminal Court (ICC). Washington, of course, is not party to it. The problem, however, is that Kabul is and the court is now busy gathering witness statements to ascertain whether or not various parties to the conflict should be tried for war crimes. Thus far, it appears that this review process extends to just the CIA, the Taliban and Afghan forces. The time period covered will be from May 2003 onwards; when Afghanistan became a signatory to the ICC. Frankly, this isn’t good enough. What the country needs after all these years is a retrospective justice of sorts. And this means hauling up those who started the fire which hadn’t always been burning since the world’s been turning: including, NATO, the White House and Downing Street; past and present. And as far as Pakistan goes — we should count our blessings that we have not been added to the ICC list of usual suspects. The state needs to ensure it stays that way. * Published in Daily Times, February 4th 2018.