The war in Afghanistan is almost half-century old now. Regardless of what names it has been fought under during this period, the victims have all been Afghan people. The war has spilled Afghan blood, but served foreign interests. Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the United States exacted the revenge of its embarrassing intervention in the Vietnam War on Moscow in Afghan mountains and valleys. While the American support for Afghan Mujahedeen finally led to the withdrawal of the Soviet forces from Afghanistan, the war benefited Americans than Afghans. The US managed to disintegrate the Soviet Union, the only rival of the US-led capitalist block during Cold War, at the cost of Afghan blood, thereby further tightening its grip over international affairs after Second World War. Because of the Soviet’s defeat in Afghan war and its subsequent dissolution, the bipolar world became unipolar, with United States emerging as the only superpower and victorious leader state against the then powerful rival.
The ongoing war, as the previous one, as well is not a war serving Afghan interests. Although the Taliban claim to be fighting Americans, an absolute majority of the victims of their attacks are Afghan people. The Taliban attacked the defense ministry’s logistics and engineering department in capital Kabul on Monday, leaving behind tens of casualties, mostly civilians. The compound is located at a residential area, and the Taliban better knew that the majority of the victims would be civilians who have nothing to do with the war. Yet they ignored the fact and paid no heed to the lives of poor Afghan people by carrying out the attack solely to show their strength, and be able to secure more concessions in the peace talks. This shows their clear disregard for civilian lives and property, and a preference for their self-interests and seizure of power. Despite their claims that they are not seeking to monopolize power, such attacks prove that nothing can convince them to shun their merciless violence, except the seizure of absolute political power.
Now that, efforts have ever been stepped up to find a political solution to the savage conflict, it is not time for attacks. If escalation of fighting could have solved Afghan conflict, it would have been done decades ago. Afghans have seen enough deaths of their loved ones in the attacks and operations of both sides. The killings did not bring an end to the Afghan misery; thus, a new approach, which is dialogue and compromise, needs to be embraced. All parties to the conflict ought to resort to bargaining at the negotiating table in lieu of flexing military muscles at the battlefields. Instead of spilling the blood of Afghan people as a bargaining chip to secure more concessions from the opposite side, they should use political wisdom, and take trust-building measures to bridge their differences.
