History, the great teacher, repeats its lessons; but man, the poor learner, constantly refuses to learn. Big powers and their big follies are a living example of this truth.
Ten years back the unipolar United States invaded Afghanistan in spite of the lesson it had learnt in Vietnam, and in spite of seeing the failure of erstwhile Soviet Russia in Afghanistan and repeated warnings that the ferociously freedom-loving Afghans have never tolerated any foreign occupying force in their land.
Now America is more than willing to withdraw and hand over the security of that country to its hand-picked rulers but is unable to do this. It is a big question of “to be or not to be there”. Only time can answer this. Obama started his presidency with the promise of ending the futile war but failed miserably to extricate his country even after a decade of bloodshed. The war has cost thousands of American and allied lives, and tens of thousands of Afghan deaths, rather countless deaths as according to former President Bush the Americans do not count dead bodies (of their enemies) up to now. It cost more than a trillion dollars. If we believe the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, the total cost of war may reach or exceed a staggering five trillion dollars. America has to bear this burden and the whole world has to share it, one of the causes of universal economic slowdown is this unwanted, unwise and unwinnable war.
The US experts are expressing the opinion that their country should try to find an honourable exit from Afghanistan as the war there is both meaningless and unwinnable. In a recent interview to B.B.C., Hamid Karzai has confessed that he failed to provide security for Afghan people. He appears to be more than willing to talk and negotiate with the Taliban. He conceded that it was a glaring shortcoming on the part of his government that the Taliban were able to launch spectacular attacks in Afghanistan, including those on high security zone of Kabul. The killing of Karzai’s brother and the peace negotiator Burhanuddin Rabbani also indicates that things are going from bad to worse.
Is there a solution? Things fall apart and no solution is in sight. Is there a way out? None at present. Is there a lesson? Yes, thousands of lessons and the biggest among them is non-interference in the affairs of other countries. Is America ready to learn the lesson and read the writing on the wall, which is becoming clearer with every passing day?