Afghanistan Is Finally Standing Up to Pakistan
- Thread starter Dzz
- Start date
As the first president of Afghanistan following the toppling of the Taliban, Hamid Karzai’s legacy will always be decidedly mixed. The famously mercurial Karzai masterfully navigated the traditional tribal politics of Afghanistan, but arguably laid the groundwork for much of the corruption and weak governance that plague the Afghan government today. During his tenure, Karzai often made headlines by frequently excoriating Pakistan for harboring the Afghan Taliban and attempting to rule Kabul by proxy. When Ashraf Ghani, a former World Bank official and development specialist, came to power in 2014, he attempted to reset relations with Islamabad—even shelving a request for military assistance from India, Pakistan’s principal rival. It did not take him long to reconsider.
Less than a year into his tenure, Ghani reversed course, saying he believed Pakistan was conducting “undeclared war” on Afghanistan. Following a Taliban bombing that killed more than sixty people in Kabul in April, Ghani blasted Pakistan for providing sanctuary to the group and told the Afghan parliament he would complain to the United Nations Security Council if Islamabad failed to take action. “We don’t expect Pakistan to bring the Taliban to talks, but we ask the Pakistanis to fulfill the promises they made . . . and launch operations against the people who have sanctuaries in Pakistan,” he said. Ghani’s frustration with Pakistan’s lack of action has surely been stoked by the fact that since the U.S. military drawdown at the end of 2014, the Taliban surged, now controlling more territory in the country than at any time since the 2001 invasion, and civilian casualties continue to rise at alarming rates.
Back in May, when the late Taliban leader Mullah Mansour was killed by a U.S. drone strike, he was driving through the Baluchistan—a western Pakistani province bordering Iran—with a Pakistani passport. It is widely known that Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan, is home to the Quetta Shura, the leadership of the Afghan Taliban. There have been other prominent examples demonstrating that Taliban leaders have been operating in Pakistan. When Afghan officials met with Taliban delegates at the Pakistani resort of Murree in July 2015, it was widely known that they were traveling from within the country. Last year, the Afghan government revealed that the Taliban’s late leader, Mullah Omar, died in a hospital in Karachi, Pakistan in 2013. And if anyone questions the ability and willingness of the Pakistani intelligence services and military to aid and abet extremists, let’s not forget that Osama bin Laden was eventually found in Abbottabad, Pakistan, close to a military compound.
While Islamabad has long denied that it harbors and supports insurgent groups, a 2010 report by Matthew Waldman for the London School of Economics revealed more than just furtive cooperation. Indeed, “This goes far beyond just limited, or occasional support. This is very significant levels of support being provided by the ISI [Pakistan’s intelligence agency]. We're also saying this is official policy of that agency, and we're saying that it is very extensive,” Waldman said.
But the reality is that this support is an open secret. In a candid admission this March, Sartaj Aziz, a foreign policy adviser to Pakistan’s prime minister, told a crowd at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, “We have some influence on them [the Afghan Taliban] because their leadership is in Pakistan and they get some medical facilities, their families are here.”
Meanwhile this year, the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (composed of Pakistan, the United States, Afghanistan and China) has failed to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table during several rounds of talks. On July 12, Afghan presidential spokesmen Haroon Chakhansuri told the Associated Press that Kabul had no plans to revive the peace process. Simultaneously, Afghan CEO Abdullah Abdullah’s spokesman Javid Faizal accused Pakistan of failing to keep its promise to cease support for the Taliban and bring the group to the negotiating table. Pakistan “is still supporting the insurgency, providing medical facilities, training, financing, which shows they have not kept their promises to make the Taliban join the peace process,” he said.
In recent months, Pakistan’s pernicious Afghan policy has come under heavy criticism in Washington. In testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad noted that while most states have a gap between their declared and actual policy, “In the case of Pakistan, the gap is huge.” Indeed, “Pakistan’s current policy and conduct would better merit its inclusion on the State Department’s list of state-sponsors of terrorism,” the former envoy argued. With the Taliban now on the offensive, Khalilzad argued that “the Taliban’s resilience can be attributed above all to the strategic decision of the Pakistani military and intelligence services to provide sanctuary and support to these groups.”
With many on the Hill advocating for a cessation of U.S. assistance to Pakistan, Khalilzad also told lawmakers that the drone strike against Mansour has “created a golden hour to confront Pakistan” and force it to choose between its support for the Taliban and the Haqqani network, or its relationship with the United States, and the attendant economic and international support that it provides to Islamabad. Aziz’s surprising confession and the circumstances surrounding Mansour’s killing—let alone the host of other incriminating evidence—provide the perfect opportunity for the United State to increase pressure on Pakistan, ignore Islamabad’s dissembling and push for an end to support for the Taliban. After all, as Khalilzad notes, “Pakistani policy is the principal cause of the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan.”
The war in Afghanistan is now America’s longest, and it has spent more in inflation-adjusted dollars than on the Marshall Plan. Following a recent decision, President Obama will leave office with 8,400 U.S. troops in country, passing the baton on to the next president. Over the last fifteen years, the war effort has been consistently undermined by Islamabad’s duplicitous Afghan policy. There has been considerable hand-wringing within the Obama administration regarding troop levels, and much less public discussion of Islamabad’s role in Afghanistan. With an increasingly dangerous Islamic State wing, which recently just conducted the biggest attack in Kabul in years; Al Qaeda’s continued presence; and an unbowed Taliban, Washington is doing itself no favors by ignoring Pakistan’s support for extremist groups.
Long before Islamabad was even admitting that the Afghan Taliban were residing in Pakistan, Karzai cogently analyzed the Afghan war and a critical reason for its intractability, albeit without conventional diplomatic tact. If the next president hopes to bring the Afghan war to a close and leave the country on a viable path for prosperity and security, she or he will have to pressure Pakistan to change course. Just ask Hamid Karzai; he’s been saying so for years.
Adam Gallagher is a writer and editor based in Washington, DC. He is a senior writer for Tropics of Meta and his work has appeared in the Huffington Post, the National Interest, the Diplomat, and for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, among other outlets. He can be followed on Twitter @aegallagher10.
Less than a year into his tenure, Ghani reversed course, saying he believed Pakistan was conducting “undeclared war” on Afghanistan. Following a Taliban bombing that killed more than sixty people in Kabul in April, Ghani blasted Pakistan for providing sanctuary to the group and told the Afghan parliament he would complain to the United Nations Security Council if Islamabad failed to take action. “We don’t expect Pakistan to bring the Taliban to talks, but we ask the Pakistanis to fulfill the promises they made . . . and launch operations against the people who have sanctuaries in Pakistan,” he said. Ghani’s frustration with Pakistan’s lack of action has surely been stoked by the fact that since the U.S. military drawdown at the end of 2014, the Taliban surged, now controlling more territory in the country than at any time since the 2001 invasion, and civilian casualties continue to rise at alarming rates.
Back in May, when the late Taliban leader Mullah Mansour was killed by a U.S. drone strike, he was driving through the Baluchistan—a western Pakistani province bordering Iran—with a Pakistani passport. It is widely known that Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan, is home to the Quetta Shura, the leadership of the Afghan Taliban. There have been other prominent examples demonstrating that Taliban leaders have been operating in Pakistan. When Afghan officials met with Taliban delegates at the Pakistani resort of Murree in July 2015, it was widely known that they were traveling from within the country. Last year, the Afghan government revealed that the Taliban’s late leader, Mullah Omar, died in a hospital in Karachi, Pakistan in 2013. And if anyone questions the ability and willingness of the Pakistani intelligence services and military to aid and abet extremists, let’s not forget that Osama bin Laden was eventually found in Abbottabad, Pakistan, close to a military compound.
While Islamabad has long denied that it harbors and supports insurgent groups, a 2010 report by Matthew Waldman for the London School of Economics revealed more than just furtive cooperation. Indeed, “This goes far beyond just limited, or occasional support. This is very significant levels of support being provided by the ISI [Pakistan’s intelligence agency]. We're also saying this is official policy of that agency, and we're saying that it is very extensive,” Waldman said.
But the reality is that this support is an open secret. In a candid admission this March, Sartaj Aziz, a foreign policy adviser to Pakistan’s prime minister, told a crowd at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, “We have some influence on them [the Afghan Taliban] because their leadership is in Pakistan and they get some medical facilities, their families are here.”
Meanwhile this year, the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (composed of Pakistan, the United States, Afghanistan and China) has failed to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table during several rounds of talks. On July 12, Afghan presidential spokesmen Haroon Chakhansuri told the Associated Press that Kabul had no plans to revive the peace process. Simultaneously, Afghan CEO Abdullah Abdullah’s spokesman Javid Faizal accused Pakistan of failing to keep its promise to cease support for the Taliban and bring the group to the negotiating table. Pakistan “is still supporting the insurgency, providing medical facilities, training, financing, which shows they have not kept their promises to make the Taliban join the peace process,” he said.
In recent months, Pakistan’s pernicious Afghan policy has come under heavy criticism in Washington. In testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad noted that while most states have a gap between their declared and actual policy, “In the case of Pakistan, the gap is huge.” Indeed, “Pakistan’s current policy and conduct would better merit its inclusion on the State Department’s list of state-sponsors of terrorism,” the former envoy argued. With the Taliban now on the offensive, Khalilzad argued that “the Taliban’s resilience can be attributed above all to the strategic decision of the Pakistani military and intelligence services to provide sanctuary and support to these groups.”
With many on the Hill advocating for a cessation of U.S. assistance to Pakistan, Khalilzad also told lawmakers that the drone strike against Mansour has “created a golden hour to confront Pakistan” and force it to choose between its support for the Taliban and the Haqqani network, or its relationship with the United States, and the attendant economic and international support that it provides to Islamabad. Aziz’s surprising confession and the circumstances surrounding Mansour’s killing—let alone the host of other incriminating evidence—provide the perfect opportunity for the United State to increase pressure on Pakistan, ignore Islamabad’s dissembling and push for an end to support for the Taliban. After all, as Khalilzad notes, “Pakistani policy is the principal cause of the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan.”
The war in Afghanistan is now America’s longest, and it has spent more in inflation-adjusted dollars than on the Marshall Plan. Following a recent decision, President Obama will leave office with 8,400 U.S. troops in country, passing the baton on to the next president. Over the last fifteen years, the war effort has been consistently undermined by Islamabad’s duplicitous Afghan policy. There has been considerable hand-wringing within the Obama administration regarding troop levels, and much less public discussion of Islamabad’s role in Afghanistan. With an increasingly dangerous Islamic State wing, which recently just conducted the biggest attack in Kabul in years; Al Qaeda’s continued presence; and an unbowed Taliban, Washington is doing itself no favors by ignoring Pakistan’s support for extremist groups.
Long before Islamabad was even admitting that the Afghan Taliban were residing in Pakistan, Karzai cogently analyzed the Afghan war and a critical reason for its intractability, albeit without conventional diplomatic tact. If the next president hopes to bring the Afghan war to a close and leave the country on a viable path for prosperity and security, she or he will have to pressure Pakistan to change course. Just ask Hamid Karzai; he’s been saying so for years.
Adam Gallagher is a writer and editor based in Washington, DC. He is a senior writer for Tropics of Meta and his work has appeared in the Huffington Post, the National Interest, the Diplomat, and for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, among other outlets. He can be followed on Twitter @aegallagher10.
Muhammad Omar
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Control your Territory First them stand up against us..
Talwar e Pakistan
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Not really.
They are trying to use Pakistan as a scapegoat for all of Afghanistan's problem - Afghanistan is trying to unite a divided country by choosing Pakistan as the "common enemy".
We've always supported Afghanistan; millions of Afghan refugees in Pakistan and thousands of Pakistani aid volunteers in Afghanistan are testimonies to that. Afghanistan is shooting itself in the foot; if it's going against Pakistan.
They are trying to use Pakistan as a scapegoat for all of Afghanistan's problem - Afghanistan is trying to unite a divided country by choosing Pakistan as the "common enemy".
We've always supported Afghanistan; millions of Afghan refugees in Pakistan and thousands of Pakistani aid volunteers in Afghanistan are testimonies to that. Afghanistan is shooting itself in the foot; if it's going against Pakistan.
WaLeEdK2
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Lol first unite yourselves before another suicide bomber rips Kabul apart. Those Retards think that we actually need them or something lmao. Try taking back the abundance of territory the Taliban hold you imbeciles. Then start talking about "standing up to Pakistan." Or maybe Pak should send those 3 million+ refuges to strain Afghanistan even more.
TMA
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Pakistan should not succor a hostile Afghanistan.
Oracle
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what if Pakistan stands up against Afghanistan
4 days of closing only single gate of border caused so much chaos , price of every single item went up literally double. merchants of afghanistan came to pakistan and request to open border . their whole econoy depends on pakistan. Afghanistan should hope that pakistan stays playing fare game. even if pakistan stop military convoys towards afghanistan for a week , you will see taliban rising like ants ..... everywhere
4 days of closing only single gate of border caused so much chaos , price of every single item went up literally double. merchants of afghanistan came to pakistan and request to open border . their whole econoy depends on pakistan. Afghanistan should hope that pakistan stays playing fare game. even if pakistan stop military convoys towards afghanistan for a week , you will see taliban rising like ants ..... everywhere
sohailbutt1987
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Taliban already control most of Afghanistan. America and its allies have already lost the war.
15 years since 2001 imvasion, what have THEY achieved?!
What Afghan government is doing is suicidal. The points that you raised regarding commerce with Afghanistan are genuine national security tools and should be used for the safety of national interests.
Hey common give them time,they have started only recently,even Pakistan after some many years of existance only recently trying to take control of the areas inside pakistan from terrorists. In that time i am sure they will be miles ahead.cheers
randomradio
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Muhammad Omar
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Ok take all the time they want until they should keep their mouth shut
Nope their country their rules , pakiatsn has no say in this . Their country is swarmed by isi agents marking sure they keep leverage in Pakistani gains . ISI literally controls the Taliban there , Afghan diplomats have openly stated this , hell they contact ISI through jihadi party context .
Alphacharlie
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Afghanistan the land of Richies....
But from 1970 to 2003 was a vassal state....with no identity.
The Rot started with Mohammed Daoud Khan -- abdicating Zahir Shah in 1973 ---
1973 to 1978 saw High inflation, assinations --- Jigra being traded as slave office,
Then 1978 Came Saur Revolution - Daud Khan and Family packed in Tin Can -- All 30 Relatives Killed
1979 to 1989 Saw Russians - Yanks - Pakistan all Parting....
Yanks - Objective "skew" Commies
USSR invaded Afghanistan for socialist internationalism, prestige & objective to thwart their Western enemies. 40th Army landed in 4 hours
Pakistan - Initially support to a Muslim Nation then Free Arms and "Yankie Balls"
1989 - 1996 - Civil War
Taliban Started to rise in 1994, with Heavy Defeats till 1996.
1996 Saw Kabul under Taliban with Support from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan Army....
Taliban Packed in Tin Can in 2001
Puppet Government 2004- 2014 - Karzai becomes President and Starts to Grow Afghanistan 1st time in 31 Years...
SuperMan assumes office 2014 Sep - Ashraf Ghani becomes president - Starts tacking Shred delas with Yanks and Indians.
Ashraf Ghani takes Bulls by Horn starts to Seriously develop Army and Air Wing.....
Pakistan in past 5 years got lesser and lesser Support (Financial) from Saudi Arabia. The game is not over -- All Terrorists are still having Chai in Jallabad. Afghanistan still has no Balls.
Outside Kabul its a wild west scene...
Until Afghanistan does not have 4 Sqns of F16/18 or 10bn cash----Dont even Talk of Pissing Pakistan.
Yanks would not bleed for Afghanistan if conflict worsens they wouldnt mind packing up
Afghanistan still doesnt even have 1 Corp of Infantry or 3 Brigades of Armored Regiments...
31 Corps of Pakistan is enough to walk over whole Afghan Army + etc etc...
Afghans are still in Infancy.....
But from 1970 to 2003 was a vassal state....with no identity.
The Rot started with Mohammed Daoud Khan -- abdicating Zahir Shah in 1973 ---
1973 to 1978 saw High inflation, assinations --- Jigra being traded as slave office,
Then 1978 Came Saur Revolution - Daud Khan and Family packed in Tin Can -- All 30 Relatives Killed
1979 to 1989 Saw Russians - Yanks - Pakistan all Parting....
Yanks - Objective "skew" Commies
USSR invaded Afghanistan for socialist internationalism, prestige & objective to thwart their Western enemies. 40th Army landed in 4 hours
Pakistan - Initially support to a Muslim Nation then Free Arms and "Yankie Balls"
1989 - 1996 - Civil War
Taliban Started to rise in 1994, with Heavy Defeats till 1996.
1996 Saw Kabul under Taliban with Support from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan Army....
Taliban Packed in Tin Can in 2001
Puppet Government 2004- 2014 - Karzai becomes President and Starts to Grow Afghanistan 1st time in 31 Years...
SuperMan assumes office 2014 Sep - Ashraf Ghani becomes president - Starts tacking Shred delas with Yanks and Indians.
Ashraf Ghani takes Bulls by Horn starts to Seriously develop Army and Air Wing.....
Pakistan in past 5 years got lesser and lesser Support (Financial) from Saudi Arabia. The game is not over -- All Terrorists are still having Chai in Jallabad. Afghanistan still has no Balls.
Outside Kabul its a wild west scene...
Until Afghanistan does not have 4 Sqns of F16/18 or 10bn cash----Dont even Talk of Pissing Pakistan.
Yanks would not bleed for Afghanistan if conflict worsens they wouldnt mind packing up
Afghanistan still doesnt even have 1 Corp of Infantry or 3 Brigades of Armored Regiments...
31 Corps of Pakistan is enough to walk over whole Afghan Army + etc etc...
Afghans are still in Infancy.....
Last edited:
happycanuck
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Whether the forum members believe in intuitive power of individuals or not is not under my control, I would like to state that in my intuitive vision the number 3 appears after the name of the country Pakistan. It is not possible for me to predict anything as to what will happen in the near future but if I take a clue from my previous experience it does not bode well for the nation of Pakistan. I saw the coming of earth quake last year in October.
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