Obama: Set to repeat the blunder

Set to repeat the blunder Seema Mustafa A very interesting report in the increasingly popular Huffington Post points out that the Americans are now backing a project called the Afghan Public Protection Force in Afghanistan to ostensibly help local communities defend themselves against the Taliban. The news report reads, “It has already been created with the hope that the communities then supply the US and Nato forces with important security information.

Surely, there is no better way to confirm that the national police, the national army and Nato forces combined are losing the war in Afghanistan than the idea of creating citizen militias of untrained, armed men.” The e-mail that forms the basis of this report also states that a secret presentation was made by the Afghanistan ministry of interior to a select audience, and while the provinces targeted have not been disclosed, it does appear that Wardak, a province in Central Afghanistan, might be the first where this experiment is held. The age group of the recruits will be between 25 and 45 years, they have to be fit, non-drug using, with no criminal record and should belong to the district from where they are recruited. All will be subjected to a ‘background check’. Each recruit will be trained for three weeks and after this will be “equipped with 1XV258 rifles (similar to AK-47, 90 rounds of ammunition plus a spare magazine. Approximately 180 rounds per (militia member) will be kept as reserve ammunition at the district centre. “Each militia unit will also be given white Ford Ranger vehicles,” marked APPF and pay will start at $100 rising to max $250pm for APPF captain.” As the Huffington Post notes, “Afghanistan has spent years trying various means of controlling the huge amounts of guns in the country — now they are giving them out.” The proposal is clearly meant to cover two aspects that have been worrying the US and the Nato forces. One is the absence of good intelligence. The second, and this is sinister, is that the local people are being thrust upfront literally as bait to attract and divert the Taliban. They are going to be the local fighters, and clearly the US which is behind the proposal, feels that the money and the guns and the power will motivate the communities into working with the Nato forces and their troops on the ground. This cynical and totally callous misuse of power was visible on the ground in India as well, when Salwa Judum was launched to tackle the Naxalites. What emerged was the harassment and victimisation of local villagers who refused to join Salwa Judum, leading to tremendous human rights violations and protests all around. Afghanistan, needless to say, is a far more complicated story. The war is against terrorism and the Taliban, but it is the innocent citizens who are being killed and wounded. The setting up of local militia groups will lead to gun battles between communities, an even more fractured society, and suffering all around. It will not succeed, as it just cannot, and is yet another example of the thinking that goes on in capitals which have little or no idea about the region and the people their forces have been sent to dominate. US President Barack Obama has said that his focus will be on Afghanistan and Pakistan, and no doubt, his administration is working on a policy. There is little to indicate at the moment that the foreign policy of Obama will be different from the previous administration, although to be fair the new President must be given sufficient time and the space to work out alternative plans. It should be clear to him and the European countries by now that the policy adopted till date has been a complete failure, and that the war being waged in the region has, despite the massive loss of lives, strengthened extremism. It should also be clear to the western capitals that the local people in Afghanistan and the border areas of Pakistan are now waging, what they think, is a war against the occupiers. And that it was these people who had joined the US to wage a similar jihad against the erstwhile Soviet Union that was the occupier of their lands then. Many of those fighting against Nato and the US troops are not necessarily terrorists. They are fighting today for their land, and against the outsider. This basic truth has to be factored into policy making as otherwise all strategy will go wrong. Al- Qaeda and Taliban operatives are cashing in on the sentiment because they know the people, and the terrain. They too are cynically manipulating the local people to fight their war, but unfortunately those on the other side are unable to realise this. The setting up of the tribal militia will merely pit the people against each other while the US and the European capitals on the one side, and the Taliban and al Qaeda on the other pull the strings. Unfortunately India, which could have played a good role, given her long-standing relations with Afghanistan, has lost her utility by becoming part of the US club. The India-US civilian nuclear energy agreement has done extensive damage to the country’s credibility across the world, with the government here now unable to even build on the deal that the prime minister and all those around him had tried to project as a major strategic achievement. Reports that surface from time to time saying New Delhi is sending military officers and others to train the Afghans do not add to the credibility, and serve to distance India from the people of Afghanistan. It is unfortunate that the government has not been able to work out a cohesive Afghan policy, having put all its eggs in the Hamid Karzai basket. Now he is out of favour with Washington, Karzai will be the first casualty of the new Obama strategy for Afghanistan. It is indeed regrettable that in all the reports about terrorism, in the media and through official propaganda across the world, there is no word about the proud and brave Afghans. They are being projected as the servile few in Kabul who because of their proximity to the US become “civilised” and the rest spread out “somewhere out there” who are faceless, nameless and hence fodder for collateral damage. Afghanistan is crawling with foreign troops, and yet the fight is being won by the Taliban, which is now poised not just to take over Kabul but by all accounts, even Peshawar in Pakistan. There is never a substitute for dialogue and peace. That is the only ideology that can work in the long run. Peace can come only if President Obama throws out of the window what passed as strategy under Bush, and works out a new plan based on dialogue and not war About the author: Seema Mustafa is a commentator on political affairs