Pakistan can help in Afghan talks

[sonicboom]

Pakistan can help in Afghan talks

Islamabad's experienced intelligence services can vet negotiators to avoid a repeat of Taliban imposter

By Farhan Bokhari, Special to Gulf News Published: 00:00 November 28, 2010

Reports in the past week of a supposed Taliban negotiator who eventually turned out to be an impostor was taken seriously to the point where he met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, raise yet new questions over the way a negotiated settlement will come together in the Central Asian country.

The US which holds most of the keys to the way Afghanistan is run, has struggled for long with securing the country. But is Washington capable of translating its hold into a political settlement is a profound question that remains unanswered.

After the failure of a decade-long military campaign to finish the Taliban for good, Washington has just in the past year come around to accepting the need for negotiations that will eventually end the Afghan conflict.

But even in agreeing to a negotiated settlement, the US appears to continue relying on parts of the Afghan regime of its own creation, to move the political process forward. Clearly, such a strategy has limitations.

Interesting questions

The faux pas surrounding the fake Taliban negotiator raises interesting questions over matters such as the ability of the Afghan regime to vet its best possible partners for engaging in a new peace process, as well as the ability of the US to help carve out the best way forward in what will inevitably be a difficult process.

One part of the difficulty is indeed the apparent inability of the US to appreciate that the Taliban are not necessarily entering a peace process from a position of weakness. On the contrary, the progress made by the Taliban in at least holding their positions and possibly even gaining some ground against their opponents, certainly does not force them to negotiate from a position of weakness. Indeed, the position of the Taliban is one of potential strength which makes it unlikely that they will offer much by way of concessions.

At the same time, as the yearning grows for resolving the Afghan conflict, there are virtually no signs of a fresh effort to rejuvenate Afghanistan's internal economic environment, long neglected by the country's western allies.

Since the US backed invasion of Afghanistan after the New York terrorist attacks forced out the Taliban from power, the entire focus of foreign and Afghan military planners has fallen on winning military battles. However, the battle for hearts and minds that could have only been won through a concerted effort to revive the Afghan economy has been terribly neglected.

It is not surprising that young Afghan men left without jobs and economic opportunities have become ready potential clients to be absorbed in the Taliban campaign to find new recruits for its cause. It is these individuals who could have been weaned away from being influenced by the militant cause and easily absorbed in a new mainstream fraternity, if only the western powers could have successfully pumped in larger resources to rejuvenate Afghanistan's economy.

Last but not the least, the process for a negotiated settlement appeared to have sought to bypass Pakistan. For years, western countries have considered Pakistan as more a part of the problem than a facilitator of a solution.

Such a view goes back to Pakistan's prior history from the 1980s when the country emerged as the main conduit for the supply of arms and training to the Afghan resistance to Soviet occupation, propped up by a US-led alliance of global partners.

During that time, while the global coalition against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan used Pakistan to facilitate their objectives, the very same global partners quickly packed up their bags and vacated the scene, shortly after the withdrawal of Soviet troops. To this day, while Pakistan has battled the militant groups who have threatened its own existence, the support it has received from its foreign allies has been inadequate.

Deep insight

But in spite of the enormity of the challenge that Pakistan faces, it is indeed the only country which can claim to be armed with a deep insight in to the workings of the militant community, notably groups like the Taliban and others in the same category.

To ignore Pakistan's potential and capacity to support the anti-Taliban cause and embark on a ‘go it alone' approach, as the case has been with the Taliban impostor, must be done at the risk of accepting an eventual disaster.

Indeed, having all of the unknown players in this process vetted by Pakistan's experienced intelligence services, may eventually help to avoid a repeat of the embarrassment just unfolding in view of the latest revelations. But the prospect of such a shift may be close to remote, given the long history of players like the US of never learning from their mistakes.



Farhan Bokhari is a Pakistan-based commentator who writes on political and economic matters.

gulfnews : Pakistan can help in Afghan talks