USA apologises for ‘offensive’ leaflets in Parwan

This sums up Pakistan’s perspective of President Donald Trump’s Afghan policy.

A commentary in this column last week analysed the Trump surge on Afghanistan, looking at the rationale behind the new American approach.

A phone number for informants to call was also provided. Pakistan somehow was apprehensive of the outcome of Mr Trump’s consultations with his generals.

Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif is due to visit China on September 8, followed by trips to Moscow, Tehran and Ankara in mid-month, ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria confirmed. He gave vague descriptions of those conditions, articulating their “clear definition” as “attacking our enemies” along with “crushing al-Qaeda” and “preventing the Taliban from taking over Afghanistan”.

U.S. forces airdropped the brochures in the Bagram district of Parwan province on Tuesday. Furthermore, the rise of ISIS also sheds light on fragile troop structure and outdated policies of Ghani regime and Trump administration both.

But absolute poverty in the country is increasing, according to a report issued by the World Bank and the Afghan government in May this year, which said that 39 percent of Afghans are unable to meet their basic needs. Similarly, the USA will not be able to find an easy alternative for Pakistan, given Trump’s inherent anti-Iran position.

United States first sought to incentivise Pakistan through the Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill of $1.5 billion annual aid commitment. The year before, US airstrikes infamously hit a hospital operated by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in the same province, killing 42 civilians, including patients and medical staff at the hospital’s Trauma Centre.

USA special forces soldiers are seen in Helmand, Afghanistan.

Mohmand also railed against the widely held opinion that Pakistan held any sway over the Afghan Taliban. Only there has been a tactical combating of the Taliban, which even proved unproductive, despite deployment of 150,000 troops of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

The United States and its allies launched a military operation in Afghanistan in 2001 following 9/11 terror attacks.

“I think the ultimate goal should be… regime change [of the Taliban]”, Dr. Moreno said.

By simply sticking with the Afghan conflict, Trump’s plan amounts to a victory for the military men increasingly filling Trump’s inner circle and a stinging defeat for the nationalist supporters who saw in Trump a like-minded skeptic of USA intervention in long and costly overseas conflicts. In addition, the Taliban have diversified their regional links with Tehran, Moscow, Beijing and Qatar to minimize their sole reliance on Pakistan.

Giving India a bigger role would only add fuel to the proxy wars and increase agonies of war-torn Afghan people.

Notwithstanding Pakistan’s honest efforts to facilitate political reconciliation between Kabul and the Afghan Taliban (on US insistence), it was twice backstabbed. Hence, Pakistan wants to control all the trump cards that the government in Kabul would have. The jury is still out on who leaked the news and who benefited from it. The burning prompted protests across the country, during which several people were killed.

Officials have however not clarified if the wounded US citizen was a military service member or a contractor. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying at the time insisted that Pakistan was on the front line in the struggle against terrorism and had made “great sacrifices” and “important contributions” in the fight. The Taliban has kept Pakistan’s rival India at bay in Afghanistan.

Washington claims to have provided around $33 billion in aid to Pakistan since 2002 – a claim rejected by Islamabad. The Trump administration believes it can kill its way to victory by ramping up the war effort and keeping the Taliban out of power.

Sequel to Trumps’ announcement of a new Afghan policy, the strategic community questions the White House and Pentagon; had, stabilization of Afghanistan was aimed at through OEF or else, the hidden objective of maintaining a long-term, open-ended military presence was the real motive behind invading Afghanistan.