The world ought to quickly understand the wisdom of Pakistan’s approach towards the Afghan peace process. Frist, when everybody wanted to physically end the Taliban by bombing and capturing them, Pakistan was telling them to talk to the insurgents otherwise the war would never end. And it was only after almost two decades of all the lost men and money that they understood that Islamabad was right all along. Then, when they started talking and everything seemed fine, it was Pakistan once again that warned about ‘spoilers’ and how they could very quickly undo all that had been achieved so painstakingly. And, quite on cue, the bad guys have gone active just as the chances of peace are growing. Pakistan has long warned about all the players in the script that can give sleepless nights to normal Afghans who want nothing more than peaceful, normal lives. Chief among all the suspects are Indian agents. The biggest loser of the peace process is no doubt New Delhi, especially since it had spent so much time and money to worm its way into Kabul’s confidence only to erect a base from which it could conveniently launch attacks into Pakistan. And now that that particular leverage is going, Delhi is panicking and trying to step up its offensive, so to speak. The other spoilers are militias like IS (Islamic State) and other remnants of the one-time alliance headed by al Qaeda. You can count on desperate governments like India to keep them alive and take care of their needs so long as they are able to mount attacks and hurt the peace process. Let’s not forget that it was the Taliban, not the Afghan army or the Americans, that led the only successful campaign against IS in Afghanistan. That is but one of the reasons that ordinary Afghans have lent their support and sympathy to the Taliban since at least 2006, which was when they really turned the war around. And that, along with the success against the occupying forces, is what gave them the momentum to call the shots in this instructive war. Hopefully all parties concerned will realise that peace is in fact more important than a politically correct withdrawal, even if the latter wins them the election in Washington. *