“In the first place, you cannot see anything from a car. You have to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk, better yet crawl, on hands and knees, over the sandstone and through the thorn bush and cactus. When traces of blood begin to mark your trail, you’ll begin to see something, may be.”
–Edward Abbey
The unfurling story of Afghanistan is absolutely mind-boggling in a number of ways. It is also an ardent reminder of the reality that states, when moth-eaten from inside, cannot be rescued by external powers no matter how mighty they may be. Furthermore, those who call upon them for help are belittling the rationale for the state to survive as an entity.
The tragedy that stalks Afghanistan today is rooted in the psyche to always point accusing fingers in the direction of Pakistan. In reality, the government in Kabul was only a contraption put together by the USA to serve its interests in the region, peace in Afghanistan not being one of them. The rapid advance of the Taliban signifies the dismantling of that contraption
The story of President Ghani and, before that, President Karzai and their retinue of associates, is a living testament of the veracity of this observation. Strength emanates from within the body politic of a state and is reflected in the work that any government would do for the alleviation of its people from the tentacles of deprivation, poverty and regression. It cannot be jettisoned from the barrel of a gun because that would bring destruction to all, irrespective of their state or status. The shells thus fired are not loaded with any healing potion. They bring mayhem in their trail as Afghanistan and its people have been unremittingly subjected to for a good four decades of their existence. But, are we any nearer to sorting out the mess which has plagued the life of every Afghan one way or the other? In the answer of this question may be hidden the future of a whole nation.
The crumbling of the incumbent administration in Kabul is no fictional assumption any longer. The so-called mighty edifice, which had survived through the influx of aid and abetment of a foreign conglomerate, is coming down like the proverbial house of cards. Instead of calling it quits and allowing people more sensitive and deserving to work out an understanding to build the nation anew, the self-driven ruling elite is eager to contrive ever more rickety ways and means for their continued survival at the helm of affairs.
This is being done when their nemesis, the Taliban, having overrun over 20 districts and occupied their capitals, is virtually knocking at the gates of Kabul. This is plain, downright delusional. But one sees the ruling elite refusing to let reason dictate the formulation of a strategy for the survival of the state and ensuring that the people who have been forced to leave their homes in the wake of war in their midst are provided shelter and food for survival. They groan in utter anguish and suffering, heaping curses on the heartlessness of the rulers who remain engrossed in piecing together their wicked mechanisms to launder their billions and take the next flight out. This is far worse than the betrayal of a state and a nation.
The voices of sanity, the voices of condemnation of this self-consuming attitude are emanating from inside the Afghan society. One has heard many men and women, who have managed to escape the theatre of war, heaping curses upon their leadership for having brought them to this pass. What are the options that we have at this stage when events unravel at an electrifying pace around us?
The continuation of the incumbent corrupt and inept administration does not appear to be a possibility any longer. For all the years that they have held the reins of power in Kabul, they indulged in siphoning off funds into their personal accounts, leaving the state rudderless and deprived of its resources. A son of the soil and a dear friend, Dr Omar Zakhilwal, who served as Afghanistan’s ambassador in Pakistan, in a chain of tweets, has defined the genesis of the crisis rather bluntly: “Afghanistan is at crossroads again of a struggle of state survival and a deeper crisis. Over the past seven years, Dr Ghani ran the Afghan state like a private fiefdom. He spent enormous government resources, both through mainstream and social media, to elevate his image to be the ‘greatest leader’ Afghanistan ever had in addition to being ‘the second most intelligent person of the world’. He tried to project his face into that of the state and the republic”.
This is followed by a damning indictment served on the incumbent president: “With untrue and exaggerated narratives, gross mismanagement, misuse of power, excessive and repeated violations of the constitution, excessive nepotism, instilling political and national divisiveness, deliberate politicisation and demoralisation of the state institutions, weaving conspiracies, sabotaging of successive opportunities for peace and extension of his rule by fraudulent means, he has reduced the state and the republic to his face. As a result, the Afghan National Security Forces are faced with the confusion whether they are fighting for the survival of the state or the continuation in power of Dr. Ghani. The latter they don’t find worth fighting for”.
Dr Zakhilwal then goes on to prescribe the remedy: “The status quo, with no change in the management of the situation, points in one direction alone: continued killings and destruction and a certain collapse of the entire state – the consequences of which for the Afghans are well known, but for the regional, neighbouring countries and the rest of the world will also be monumental. The current circumstances – stalled peace talks and rapid melting down of the state – require simultaneous two-pronged strategy: safeguarding the state from a collapse and an enhanced and authoritative management of the peace talks to lead to a definitive settlement. Neither is possible under Ashraf Ghani because, one, he has been the main cause of wasting the opportunities for peace and the rapid decline of the state in terms of gravitas, authority and geographical control and, two, he has exhausted his entire credibility. He has to go and spare what is left of the Afghan state due to the ills of his management”. He then calls upon the rest of the political leadership to “come out of paralysis, acknowledge the severity of the situation and become part of a broader political management of the crisis”. Nothing could be more lethal and more relevant leading up to the existing situation in Afghanistan.
Dr Zakhilwal has outlined the malaise that the Afghan state is afflicted with at this juncture. It is also true that immediate measures need to be taken to cure the governance malady. With the electrifying advance of the Taliban, now ascendant over more than half of Afghanistan, the chances of a negotiated settlement seem difficult. The Taliban would be a much more difficult proposition now as compared to some time in the past when they would have compromised more readily. But the key to a solution has to begin with giving the state priority over all self-driven interests and agendas. Whether that can be achieved through what Dr Zakhilwal refers to as the “broader Afghan leadership” remains a matter of contention.
Dr Zakhilwal’s prognosis, though candid, has come a wee bit late. He refers to it as the exit of Ashraf Ghani. But that is not the whole problem. The tragedy that stalks Afghanistan today is rooted in the psyche to always point accusing fingers in the direction of Pakistan. In reality, the government in Kabul was only a contraption put together by the USA to serve its interests in the region, peace in Afghanistan not being one of them. The rapid advance of the Taliban signifies the dismantling of that contraption. Owing to the grievances of the people inflicted upon them by the corrupt ruling elite, the Taliban don’t have to fight to ‘conquer’ the state any longer. It is virtually surrendering into their lap. In such a situation, the motivation for a dialogue, at best, remains a moot point.
Tailpiece: The landing of the US and UK troops in large numbers in Kabul, ostensibly for the purpose of evacuating their personnel from Afghanistan, has raised a few eyebrows. When one puts this together with the rumours of a breakthrough achieved at Doha in terms of facilitating the Taliban entry into Kabul without a fight to become part of a transitional government, it makes one think. Faced with an obvious doom, could this be real, or does this remain part of the often-orchestrated and misleading game plan only to camouflage the real intent? Nothing is beyond reckoning. But something has already happened: Ashraf Ghani is rendered irrelevant.
