Thesis Abstract and Dissertation Abstracts
"war Against Terrorism In Afghanistan After 9/11"
Abstract Category: Arts
Course / Degree: Master
Institution / University: The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan
Published in: 2012
Afghanistan a landlocked country, occupies a strategic position between China, and the West, Central and South Asian regions. The geographic location gives Afghanistan great strategic significance. Afghanistan has remained an arena for the clashing interests of external powers for centuries. Following the collapse of Afghan President Najibullah's communist dictatorship, a loose coalition of resistance groups took power in Kabul. Fifty one political and religious leaders formed an interim ruling council that selected as its leader Sibgatullah Mojadidi was the leader of the National Front for the Rescue of Afghanistan and one of the smallest Mujahideen groups. Arab Islamic radicals, Libya, and Pakistan gave him the lion's share of the foreign arms supplied to the Mujahideen. Hekmatyar's forces besieged Kabul bombarding the city with artillery and rockets that killed thousands of civilians.
The situation provided the thought of Afghan military leaders, civil servants, diplomats, and education systemfor students with the intellectual basis they need to prepare for further study or for assignments in Afghanistan, a nation that has been at war for 33 years. Officers in the Afghanistan Pakistan Hands Program may also find it a useful starting point, but their intensive studies will quickly take them beyond the scope of this work. Students or scholars may also find it a useful primer for learning about Afghanistan. By analyzing the land and its people, recapping Afghan history and assessing the current situation, this work hopes to set a foundation upon which leaders and scholars can begin their preparation for more specific tasks. It also will examine the range of choice for future US policy toward Afghanistan and give suggestions for future study.
Afghanistan is one of the few countries of the modern world to have experienced a drastic decline in its population, Between April 1978, when a violent coup brought to power a radical, pro Soviet political party and early 1986 perhaps one third of the populace fled the country. Although accurate data were not available in the mid 1980s, most observers estimated that 2.5 to 3 million Afghans lived in refugee camps in Pakistan, as many as 1.9 million were resident in Iran and perhaps 1,50,000 had sought refuge elsewhere including the United States. According to the United Nations, this constituted the largest refugee population in the world. In addition, since the April 1978 coup and particularly since the December 1979 Soviet invasion hundreds of thousands have been killed or have died as a result of wounds, diseases, or other hardships and deprivations caused by warfare.
In general, Afghan politics from 1992 to 1996 were highly fluid with mid sized factions seeking to maximize their room to maneuver by forming a bloc against the strongest faction, if it threatened their independence.In January 1994, after Massoud's forces blocked Hekmatyar's campaign to storm Kabul and whittled away his military forces, the Uzbek militia defected from the provisional government. The rise of the Taliban forced both to put aside their differences and join forces in the Northern Alliance in October 1996.The founder of the movement, Mullah Mohammed Omar, reportedly recruited 30 students from his religious school in the Maiwand. The Taliban quickly added to the territory under its control. A large Taliban force was annihilated after seizing the city of Mazar-i-Sharif in May 1998, after arrogantly trying to disarm local Uzbeks who betrayed General Dostam by defecting to the Taliban. The Taliban's failed offensive in the fall of 1999 has fueled speculation that it is declining in military strength.
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the lingering civil war in Afghan war had severe repercussions for Pakistani state and society. Pakistan had to face a massive influx of nearly 4 million Afghan refugees the largest in the world. Unlike Iran, which kept its refugees under tight surveillance by restricting them to border areas. Today, after many years of Soviet military intervention, Afghanistan remains a troubled and violent country. Although many refugees have left after 9/11, a sizable 2.6 million are still staying on in Pakistan.When Afghan refugees streamed across the borders into Pakistan, they created a number of problems for the host country e.g. there were incidents of encroachment over lands and property, overgrazing of fields of local population, large scale deforestation, land erosion, illegal shanty towns, massive increase in rent ceilings, introduction of drug and Kalashnikov culture, intensification of sectarianism, increased competition for transport and construction businesses, housing and jobs and incidents of violence etc.
On 11 September 2001, al-Qaida operatives hijacked four airplanes crashing two into the World Trade Towers and a third into the Pentagon with the fourth forced down in a Pennsylvania field before it could complete its mission. This attack represented the single largest terrorist attack in history and the largest attack ever on US soil. It did not take long for the U.S. to determine that al-Qaida was to blame. The US pressured the Taliban to turn over bin Laden. When they refused, the US started planning for the invasion. Since Afghanistan is a landlocked country, the US required the airspace, bases, and logistical support of neighboring countries to conduct the invasion. The US was negotiating with Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan for support, but the US desperately needed Pakistan’s support.
The people of the United States and the world endured a heinous act of terrorism on 9/11, 2001. That act has lead to the War on Terrorism and the redefinition of American foreign policy and its national security strategy. Does this new strategy, what is referred to as the Bush Doctrine, constitute a Just War ethical tradition. The Bush Administration has crafted an extensively publicized and executedpolicy response to the events of September 11. Bush wants more than one war on terrorism and a grand strategy of global leadership and the preclusion of rivals, regional and global.Our partnership with Pakistan is inextricably linked to our efforts in Afghanistan. To secure our country, we need a strategy that works on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. The Costs of inaction are far greater. The United States is committed to strengthening Pakistan’s capacity to target those groups that pose the greatest threat to both of our countries.
Once again, due to its strategic location, Pakistan acquires immense importance for USA, as its neighbour Afghanistan with a lengthy, porous border and both have deep historic, cultural, ethnic and religious ties. Due to this geographical continuity between the two, especially regarding its northernareas.The US military operations in Afghanistan was the linkage of the September11, 2001, terrorist attacks to al Qaeda, which trained and operated under Taliban protection inAfghanistan. In an address to a joint session of Congress on September 20, 2001, President George W. Bush stated US demands on the Taliban, warning the Taliban. They will hand over the terrorists or they will share in their fate. On October 7, 2001, following the refusal of the Taliban regime to cease harboring al Qaeda, theUS government launched military operations in Afghanistan, with the stated purpose ofdisrupting the use of Afghanistan as a terrorist base of operations and attacking the militarycapability of the Taliban regime.
Following 9/11 the US launched war against Al-Qaeda network. It was presumed that this group was behind the attacks on Pentagon and World Trade Centre in collaboration with the Taliban government in Afghanistan. The Light Footprint Strategy, comprising heavy air offensive but minimum ground troop presence was adopted at the initial stage which eventually led to retreat of Taliban. With the fall of Kabul, in December 2001, the idealistic part of the Bush administration foreign policy became operational as the realist objective of putting an end to Taliban government was achieved. After that the peacekeeping force in the country for ensuring security, effective governance and unhindered economic growth. Initially, 4,000 troops from different allied countries along with the US forces participated in the peacekeeping mission. Afterwards, in 2003 the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was given the charge to operate along with the US military.
More specifically following US military strikes against the Taliban regime fell and in consequence many defeated Taliban’s crossed over the Pakistan and Afghanistan border took refuge in the tribal regions of Pakistan. Incidentally, these regions, comprising of seven tribal agencies have close ethnic and family ties with each other. With varied interpretations of the Durand Line and the tribal areas traditionally enjoying a semi autonomous status, it was not too difficult to mingle with the local people. Cognizant of the incumbent situation in tribal areas, they were able to carry out terrorist activities within Pakistan and against the Karzai government as well.
The Pushtuns are probably the largest "stateless ethnic group" in the present day world. They inhabit large sections of Pakistan's western regions the KP, the FATA, and Balochistan, Afghanistan's eastern and southeastern provinces. They are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan and the second largest in Pakistan. They straddle the Durand line, a porous and contested demarcation that forms the border between the two countries. Until a few decades ago, the kinsmen on both sides of the border followed the tradition of cross migrating between both countries every few years and lived in the homes and lands of their cousins across the border.
Military and diplomatic officials from Pakistan, the United States and Afghanistan have met near the Pakistani capital to discuss regional cooperation and coordination in the fight against terrorism. Senior generals from three countries, who meet regularly under the commonly known Tripartite Commission, also reviewed the security situation along the Afghan and Pakistan border efforts to fight militants. The talks focused on ways to connect all parties to an intelligence data base on militant activities in Pakistan and Afghanistan and how to improve security in the southern Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. The top US commander in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry, led the American delegation, while Lieutenant General David Richards represented NATO led peacekeepers. Also in attendance were the head of operations of the Afghan National Army, Lieutenant General Sher Karimi, as well as director General of Military Operations of the Pakistani Army, Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha.
The US unearthing a pseudo terrorist attack in New York, involving a native Pakistani, seemed on the face of it portraying two elements, a culprit belonging to a target country Pakistan and a resultant US resolve to strike whatever target causing threat to US security anywhere in the world. Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan that FATA. Only lunatics could believe that there was some reality behind the episode staged in New York by some clandestine outfit CIA, FBI, Homeland Security and Israeli Mosad.The US Department also disclosed another reason for pardoning the non NATO ally Pakistan as it had shifted one hundred thousand troops from its eastern border with India to its western frontier with Afghanistan, clearly in support of US military effort in Afghanistan against Taliban and AL Qaeda elements. Pakistan expressed its astonishment on what had been disclosed by the US State Department regarding movement of such a large number of Pakistani troops to its border with US occupied Afghanistan. It reasserted that major threat to its security was coming from India not the terrorists on its western border with Afghanistan.
The year 2003 brought a significant change in India-Pakistan relations. The two sides stepped towards the process of normalization through dialogue. The revival of the peace dialogue between India and Pakistan in 2003 was an outcome of certain wise and objective political calculations of Pakistan and India. After the Agra Summit in 2001 and the disastrous attacks on the twin towers of New York9/11, the security sensitivities of India and Pakistan were increased against each other. The terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament House on 13 December 2001 worsened the situation and Pakistan was of being behind this attack.
The US has been after Osama Bin Laden since the destruction of the World Trade Centre in New York and a portion of the Pentagon defence complex in Washington, on September 11, 2001. The USA claimed that she had killed the most wanted person, Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan in the night between, May 2, 2001, in a covert operation carried out by US Navy’s prestigious SEALS commandos. The US infiltrators dodged Pakistan’s defences of all sorts. In doing so, they sued state of the art stealth helicopters to cheat defences of the ally country Pakistan. Justifyingself styled violation of Pakistan’s territory and space, the US clarified that sharing any information with Pakistan side about the covert operation was likely to forewarn the high value target. Major beneficiary of the Abbottabad Operation US President Barack Hussein Obama himself announced the third death of Osama Bin Laden in his national address.
The President speech reaffirms the March 2009 core goal to disrupt, dismantle and eventually defeat al Qaeda and to prevent their return to either Afghanistan or Pakistan. The US and allies will surge the forces, targeting elements of the insurgency and securing key population centers, training Afghan forces, transferring responsibility to a capable Afghan partner and increasing our partnership with Pakistanis, who are facing the same threats. This region is the heart of the global violent extremism pursued by al Qaeda and the region from which we were attacked on 9/11. New attacks are being planned there, a fact borne out by a recent plot, uncovered and disrupted by American authorities. We will prevent the Taliban from turning Afghanistan back into a safe haven from which international terrorists can strike at us or our allies. This would pose a direct threat to the American homeland and that is a threat that we cannot tolerate. Al Qaeda remains in Pakistan, where they continue to plot attacks against us and where they and their extremist allies pose a threat to the Pakistani state. Our goal in Pakistan will be to ensure that al Qaeda is defeated and Pakistan remains table.
The Bonn Agreements were made that Reaffirming the independence, national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan, Acknowledging the right of the people of Afghanistan to freely determine their own political future in accordance with the principles of Islam, democracy, pluralism and social justice, aware that the unstable situation in Afghanistan requires the implementation of emergency interim arrangements and expressing their deep appreciation to his excellency Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani for his readiness to transfer power to an interim authority which is to be established pursuant to this agreement, Recognizing the need to ensure broad representation in these interim arrangements of all segments of the Afghan population, including groups that have not been adequately represented at the UN Talks on Afghanistan, Noting that these interim arrangements are intended as a first step toward the establishment of a broad based, gender sensitive, multi ethnic and fully representative government and are not intended to remain in place beyond the specified period of time.
The Afghan President Hamid Karzai says Islamabad has an important role to play in Kabul's proposed reconciliation talks with Afghan insurgent groups. In a joint press conference today with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Karzai tried to shun speculation that Kabul is attempting to sideline Pakistan while reaching out to Afghan Taliban leaders. Without Pakistani cooperation, he said, Afghanistan cannot be stable or peaceful. There is recognition now, I am certain, in both nations of the opportunities together and on the dangers that we have faced together and that it is upon both of us a responsibility towards our own nations and towards the future generations that we notice the dangers and that we work together to remove them, to take them away from amongst us, and to work together toward stability and peace in both countries.
The US speech on major policy on March 10, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband outlined Western thinking. If Afghanistan is to have a more peaceful and prosperous future, it needs not just a new internal political settlement but also an external one. There needs to be much greater effort to reach out, not just to disaffected Afghans, but to the country's neighbors and near neighbors. That greater effort, some argue, needs to be matched with money and political support. On March 10, Zardari called for a Marshall Plan for Pakistan and Afghanistan to rid the countries of Taliban militancy, referring to the US initiative to rebuild Western Europe after World War II.
On April 27, 2012, the top Afghan, Pakistani and US diplomats Friday opened talks in Islamabad to review peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan, officials and diplomats said. Special US Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman and Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister, Jawed Luddin are leading their delegations in the talks.The Pakistan side is headed by the Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani, a Foreign Ministry statement said.The 6th meeting of the Core Group of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States would review various issues of common interest including the Afghan led and Afghan owned peace and reconciliation process, economic development, narcotics, return of Afghan refugees and regional connectivity, the Foreign Ministry says.Afghan ambassador in Islamabad, Omar Daudzai, told IRNA that the meeting will also discuss the obstacles in the Afghan peace and reconciliation process.
So, in future Afghanistan and Pakistan is not going to be shaped by cooperation between the great powers Russia, China, and the US. A new great game between the great powers may emerge after the US and its European allies withdraw. However, it is the way in which the US, NATO, ISAF and major aid donors interact with the Afghan and Pakistani governments as they transition by withdrawing their forces and cutting their spending and aid that will shape events for the foreseeable future. Even in recent Chicago summit have showed the intention that US forces will remain in Afghanistan till 2024.This transition is already underway, but no one can yet predict how the withdrawal of US, NATO and ISAF combat forces from Afghanistan in 2014 will play out over time.It is not clear how the US, NATO and ISAF allies will actually manage the withdrawal of their forces. It is not clear how much continuing support aid donors will provide to Afghanistan through 2014 and beyond.
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Submission Details: Thesis Abstract submitted by Ali Ishfaq from Pakistan on 18-Jul-2012 08:02.
Abstract has been viewed 20149 times (since 7 Mar 2010).
Ali Ishfaq Contact Details: Email: irishfaq31@yahoo.com Phone: +923325832581
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