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Addressing an assembly of the victims /survivors of Kunar attack President Karzai demanded an end to US and NATO incursions in Afghan soil.
In a show of sympathy with the victims, the President had flown to the eastern province of Kunar.
Addressing the gathering the President said, “I, in this gathering, on behalf of the people of Afghanistan, with respect, with honor and humility – not with pride and arrogance – request US and NATO to stop (military) operations in our soil. This war/fight is not in our land. If there’s a war on terror, there’s no terrorism in our soil; it’s not in our houses and villages.”
He added, “They (the terrorists) have their own (hiding) places and NATO knows it well. It’s been 10 years that the war has continued. This war isn’t in our soil. Afghans want reconciliation, peace and in bringing peace they are working together with the international community. They want an end to war. It’s the voice of the people.”
The gathering took place in remembrance of the 9 children who were killed by NATO offensive taking them as Taliban. Though Gen David Petraeus had submitted an official apology but it was turned down as ‘insufficient’ by the president but a day later an apology by the US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was accepted by the President.
This comes in a time when one of Karzai’s extended family’s members Yar Muhammad Karzai (thought to be President Karzai’s cousin) was killed in a night raid by the NATO led forces in the southern province of Kandahar. Yar Muhammad Karzai was in his early 60’s and quite respectable in his locality.
As the unending war gets lengthier, patience on either side apparently diminishes with the passage of time. More NATO led incursions, night raids, friendly fire killings, bombardments of civilian houses taking for Taliban hideouts, and promises of more talks behind the scenes shape the landscape of today’s Afghanistan even after a decade of involvement of the international community led by the sole superpower and the largest contingents of forces dully supported by the world’s largest Defense Alliance NATO. All these are indicators of impatience and a rush to achieve more in less time but history has it that force can’t bend down masses and especially if they are afghans. Out of such actions in frustration the only party that benefits the most is the Taliban who would gain public sympathy and hope for a return to the scene.
10 years of war and pouring of billions of dollars in military aid or more accurately military operations have brought less than expected. Hearts and minds are still not won the way they should have been. Instead of pouring in billions of dollars in killing and mistakenly killing the civilians, it’s rather wise to pour them in social development sector. Though the road would be harder than the military one but it would definitely be a stable and more lasting one. Only such a strategy supported by all stakeholders could succeed and would practically put an end to bombings, skirmishes and violence for good in the mutual benefits of both parties.
