Taming Afghanistan

US are planning to add 30000 soldiers to its force in Afghanistan. The objective is to seek to make it a governable state and not a launching ground of terrorism around the world by Al Qaida. At this time I will invite the incoming Obama administration’s attention to the fate of a British force of 16500 which was sent to effect a regime change in Afghanistan in 1942. It was decimated completely by Afghan guerillas and a lone survivor by the name of Dr Brydon limped back to report this. This shocked the British Empire where the sun never set in those days and it drew some conclusions.

•It was easy and straightforward to invade Afghanistan but it is absolutely impracticable to occupy the country or attempt to impose a government not welcomed by the inhabitants.
•The political and ideological needs of leaders must not supplant military judgments when incursions in other countries occur.
•The character and determination of its leaders can be decisive in determining the morale and success of a military expedition.

Both Bush and Blair flouted the above lessons and threw caution to winds. In their zeal to make use of the new technologies and weapon systems they sent both Afghanistan and Iraq to Stone Age The morass they created did not make the world any safer and bereft of Al Qaida and its followers.

In an article in the Time of December 22, 2008, Joe Klein calls Afghanistan war as aimless and rooted in absurdity. The reasons he advanced are:

•Our original objective of catching or eliminating Osama bin Laden has evaporated as he has moved to Pakistan.
•The Afghan war has become a war against narco-tribal guerilla forces. We mistakenly continue to call them Taliban.
•Pakistan is the new base and safe haven for “rag tag bands of opium fueled assorted religious extreamists, drug lords and Mullah Omar operate out of Quetta”

All this is true today but in 2009 we need not go on a rampage against Bush and Blair and their ideology based policies. On the other hand the destructive policies of last 10 years may have ushered in an age of non ideological and pragmatic policies. For the first time in history we have means to overcome the challenges faced by disastrous expeditions by British and Americans.

A wide ranging and prudent actions based on the understanding of the local cultures and designed to wean people away from habit of violence due to lack of work and poverty will make the southern Asia and Afghanistan safer for them and the rest of the world. These deliberate actions will not only squeeze terrorists all over the world but will also eradicate the scourge of poverty and eradicate disease for billions of human beings.

Military solutions and efforts to change old mores and build democratic institutions have miserably failed. None of this has caught on with completely uneducated and grossly poor populace. It is high time that we try new solutions to eradicate Al Qaida, Taliban, Maoists, Hamas and all of its kind.

US and NATO have messed up the situation so bad that if they continue to stay there, will only add to the misery of Afghans and the rest of the world. Their mission which was rooted in good intensions was doomed to failure from the get go. Obama administration should immediately move UN in collaboration of Russia, China, India and most of gulf countries to create a “Terror Eradication Force” of 50000 soldiers and begin the experiment in Afghanistan and then replicate it in other terror ridden and lawless places like Somalia, Congo and Sudan. The world will have to have such a force with sufficient teeth to do the job as soon as possible or continue to undergo the terror attacks like 9/11, Mumbai and on and on.

The developed world had become rich by exploitation of mineral wealth and unequal commerce with more than 3 billion people that live in Asia and Africa. It is their moral duty to help build an infrastructure which will assure their sustained development. If the developed continues to ignore and let them rot in absence of infrastructure, it is a sure recipe for terrorism and the likes of Al Qaida. And we could have more of lawless places like Afghanistan and Pakistan. We need highways and bridges and large industrial complexes employing millions of people. The employment and infrastructure in Afghanistan and other areas would demolish the haven for fundamentalists who prey on poor people of all nationalities. In Afghanistan, opium fuels terrorism, finances Taliban and Al Qaida as also feeds the local population. Without infrastructure and amelioration of poverty in South Asia, there is no hope for them and more cedes ground to terrorism for the world.

All western forces will need to get out of the area. The effort to rid the area of terrorism should be led by Russia, China, India, Iran and countries who know the people, terrain , culture and have had links with Afghanistan at one time or another. One of the countries which is remote and has lot of space like Mongolia, Saudi Arabia or a large island may be developed to be the training center for such a force.

And if the US in its ignorance continues to pin all the violence on Islamic Fundamentalists, we will be breathing life into many more Al Qaida’s and Taliban’s. It is economy stupid.

Saving India and Pakistan

Mumbai terror bombing was an outrage and a crime against humanity. As in many other terror outrages, the perpetrators are dead and will be condemned to some eternally damned place. What the humanity has to sort out is the response against a cowardly, hidden and unknown enemy of humanity. But the blame game that has emerged is more outrageous and is tantamount to be playing into the hands of terrorists.

India has blamed Pakistan for having harbored terrorists. India and the whole world know the Pakistan is a poorly run country and is teetering on disintegration. What good it does to blame Pakistan when it is also fighting the same enemy. The Hindu nationalists blamed Indian government because they want to capture power even when the country is facing its worst crisis. Power in the hands of those who killed Gandhi and want to build temples on mosques would only hasten the downfall of India and ruin the fragile economic upswing after decades of resistance to change. West blamed India for being a soft target. What do we expect when US and West keep on going to wars and leaving countries with loose arms for the people to kill each other? And the rabid nationalism flourishes when the countries are spending billions of dollars on building nuclear devices and the masses are impoverished and without food? The list goes on and on.

India and Pakistan will have to do some serious soul searching and address the problems which have festered for 50 years. Only than could they start protecting the lives of a hapless population of more than a billion and half human beings.

Here are some of the solutions:

•Kashmir does not belong to India or Pakistan. Before it destroys them and breaks them into pieces both the countries should give it back Kashmirees. UN should protect them with a permanent force with a lot of teeth. Could UN establish one of its agencies thereat?

•Indians will have to stop treating Indian Muslims as second rate citizens and start giving them respect and jobs. They will have to strengthen them economically and protect them from Hindu nationalists.

•India will have to go after Hindu nationalists and stop cowering when pitted against hoodlums and mobsters. They should army to take over the states like Gujarat that are involved in aiding and abetting communal strife. Pakistan will have to fight a war against Taliban of various colors and hues.

•The world will have to prepare and coach the Indian nation to overcome the outmoded concepts of nationalism and sovereignty. United States, Russia, China and all the willing countries will have to equip Indian sub continent with the most modern technology to fight terrorism which germinates in the thickly populated back alleys of very poor ungovernable corners of huge urban slums. Like in all conflicts in this century, the shrinkage of world and availability of technology has been a double edged sword. It has inflicted untold havoc on unsuspecting civilians.

•Force a No War Pact between India, Pakistan, China and other neighboring countries. This is the only way the teeming billions of people could be protected and will feel safe and poverty banished.

•India and Pakistan remain some of the most corrupt nations in the world. The bureaucracy at all levels and politicians are owners of corrupt fiefs. Breaking this stranglehold handed down by the British will need a will of steel. Indians and Pakistanis have so far shown none.

•India’s economic transformation under the current Prime Minister has made India rich for a very small number of people. The rural India which is 80% of the nation remains starkly poor and hungry. Spreading prosperity to the real India may well be the key to its strength. Pakistan is not far behind.

•India is a huge country with mainly centralized power framework. It has more than a billion people. As a result it is full of pockets of rebels, decoits, militias, rogue areas and insurgents. No government in India, central or state has control over the territory they rule. The only way to overcome this to devolve power and create a true federal state where the parts have much more power and control over their area.

India as also Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and other smaller countries in South Asia are incapable of doing all this on their own. They are locked in the distorted mores and corrupt culture handed down to them by colonists. It is the moral responsibility of western nations which fleeced them for centuries to build a massive infrastructure of roads, bridges, canals, dams, factories and provide them a road map to join the new world. This will be beneficial to west and east both. West will develop massive consumption markets and South Asia will be equipped to go after terrorists in a big way.

Obama and Hillary should also be listening and stop wasting billions of dollars on wars and developing democracy in South Asia?