Who grieves over Afghan civilians?
30 May 2017
A savage terrorist attack marred the beginning of the holy month of
Ramadan in Afghanistan the other day. More than 20 persons including
children died when the Taliban carried out a suicide blast near a bus
station. This incident went almost unnoticed by the international
community, which is still mourning the victims of the Manchester
concert blast. No world leader cared to condemn the incident or offer
condolences to the families of the victims. Why? If such a blast had
occurred in a developed country heads of state the world over would
have lost no time in condemning it and offering condolences. The number
of Afghans killed in the latest terror strike has, as usual, become a
mere statistic.
US President Donald Trump has pledged to
induct more American boots in Afghanistan. He has not been moved by the
suffering of the hapless Afghans troubled by terrorism. If US
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s recent statement on Afghanistan is
anything to go by, what has caused concern to the US is the ability of
the Taliban to carry out attacks in other parts of the world. In other
words, if the Taliban had limited their terrorism to Afghanistan the
developed world wouldn’t have bothered to fight them.
Trump
seems to think that the strengthening of US military presence, bombing
and drone attacks will help neutralise the Taliban once and for all.
Terrorism, no doubt, must be fought with might and main and military
action is a prerequisite for any anti-terror campaign. Terrorists don’t
understand any other language. But, the fact remains that the success
of the ongoing military campaign against the Taliban hinges on the
ability of the US-led forces to prevent the terrorists from recruiting
combatants. The ISIS, al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorists have fertile
recruiting grounds in trouble-torn countries like Afghanistan. Decades
of neglect, deprivation and violence in such societies have enabled the
elements like the Taliban to brainwash the frustrated youth and
produce human bombs in large numbers. When children, denied access to
education and fed on a diet of bigotry and hatred grow up in an
environment where violence is a way of life it is only natural that
they take up arms later in life and fight for various macabre causes.
The
US may drop thousands of bombs on Afghanistan and induct hundreds of
thousands of soldiers to conduct ground operations there but still fail
to realise its goal of eliminating the Taliban. For, it has not
concentrated on other fronts. The need for creating an environment where
the Afghan children and youth will receive a decent education and
learn to cherish the value of democratic freedoms and human rights
cannot be overemphasised. It is hoped that President Trump will take
action to redouble the efforts being made to educate Afghan children
and improve the economic conditions in that war-ravaged nation. Unless
the socio-economic swamp in Afghanistan is systematically drained, the
Taliban will continue to thrive. This is, in fact, something the US
should have done decades ago after achieving its goal of driving the
Russians away with the help of Afghan guerrillas. Had it invested in
education, rekindling democracy and economic development in Afghanistan
the meteoric rise of the Taliban wouldn’t have been possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment