Pakistan is now the real problem – Khan is about to pivot away from West, says BEN HABIB
Our withdrawal from Afghanistan and the manner of it is the biggest foreign policy disaster of the 21st century.
By
BEN HABIB
PUBLISHED: 00:01, Thu, Aug 19, 2021 | UPDATED: 18:51, Thu, Aug 19, 2021
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Its immediate impact is a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan but its long-term impact will be decades of instability and the loss of Western influence in the region. The Prime Minister blaming the Americans for this failure is risible. In doing so all he has done is lend credence to those that claim we are no more than a lapdog for the US, unable to stand alone as a military power and that we should never have bitten off more than we can chew. And he is wrong.
There is a great deal we could and should have done. For a start, we should have been vocal months ago against the withdrawal. We had to make it known in the West and in the region that we are utterly opposed to it.The reality is that we favoured the withdrawal. General Sir Nick Carter said so in early July. So we are complicit.
Imran Khan may be pushed further away from the West (Image: Getty)
The UK favoured the withdrawal, as confirmed by Gen Sir Carter (Image: Getty)
Moreover, we were hugely divisive in Afghanistan. We sought to impose our ideology over their theology, forcing Afghans to side with us or the Taliban. God is a powerful motivator.
And those that did side with us are now being tortured and killed – not just interpreters but anyone who joined our way.
Whatever we might have thought of their religion and culture, it was not for us to go into their ecosystem and thoroughly unbalance it.
Seeking to export “democracy” to North Africa, the Middle and Near East has been an unmitigated disaster. Stable democracies cannot be created at the end of the muzzle of a gun.
What started without a geopolitical aim is ending in a geopolitical catastrophe.
This particular catastrophe is not in fact in Afghanistan but its neighbouring Pakistan.
Just as the people of Afghanistan had to choose sides, so have the people and government of Pakistan.
The West’s war in Afghanistan has been to a significant extent prosecuted through Pakistan, variously relying on or admonishing it.
It is Pakistan that has had to deal with the fallout of the Afghan invasion and it will be Pakistan that will have to deal with the fallout of the retreat. There are already over 3 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan. This is now going to rise dramatically.
Pakistan rightly blames the West for the problems it faces in Afghanistan.
Afghan nationals cross the border into Pakistan at the border crossing in Chaman (Image: Getty)
It has little option but to make some sort of peace with the Taliban.
In doing so, it will pivot further away from the West. So robbed are we now of moral authority that they will have little truck with our wants and desires.
If we ever wanted to influence the Islamic world, the way to have done it was through what was moderate Pakistan. That opportunity has all but gone.
The power that will likely replace the West in the region is China.
It clearly sees the benefits that accrue to its Belt and Roads initiative from a close association with Pakistan. It has been financing projects in the country and the government for many years now.It will see the debacle in Afghanistan as an opportunity to further strengthen its ties. These overtures will be welcomed in Islamabad.
Afghanistan tops the list of countries most affected by terrorism (Image: Daily Express)China does not seek to export its ideology; it deals through commerce.It does not lecture Pakistan. It cooperates with the country. It is stable in its affections. It is therefore respected and welcomed.
https://www.express.co.uk/comment/e...istan-latest-Afghanistan-crisis-China-backing
We need to start taking a leaf out of China’s foreign policy approach. It has worked brilliantly in securing its global trade needs. Our obsession, on the other hand, with exporting our ideology and democracy has yielded nothing other than bloodshed, vast cost and the loss of moral authority.
We see China as a threat to the West. We abhor its human rights record. We wish to check its advances. But our retreat in Afghanistan has just propelled China forward and set ourselves back immeasurably in the region.
Xi Jinping... Should we be looking at China for reference? (Image: Getty)
It may be ironic that to secure our aims in the region we must emulate China’s approach but that is what we must do.
If anything is to be salvaged from the collapse in Afghanistan we need to eat a lot of humble pie and extend a hand of friendly support to Pakistan. We need to do that urgently.
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