Pak-Afghanistan: 'Learning from Iraq'

Both Afghanistan and Pakistan should realise the danger of letting terrorists go scot-free.

There is much for Pakistan and Afghanistan to learn from the developments unfolding in Iraq. Foreign militants driven by fanaticism have captured yet another Iraqi city after Mosul, which fell on Tuesday, and are marching posthaste towards Baghdad, the country’s capital. The way two divisions of US-trained Iraqi troops vanished without putting up a credible defence at Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, must lead Kabul to draw the right lessons. Iraqi security forces which collapsed were trained for 10 years by the US occupation army at the expense of billions of dollars. The militants are being led by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) which is an anti Shia outfit and intends to foist upon the country a medieval Sunni Islamic Caliphate. Thanks the assistance provided to some of these groups by the US and the Gulf states, they now threaten the integrity of Iraq and Syria. The extremism is in the long run likely to consume the Gulf states themselves and make the US pay a heavy price for encouraging the trend.

Pakistan and Afghanistan also face an existential threat from the militant and sectarian groups. It is high time governments on both sides realised the danger. Providing shelter to these groups in the hope that they would act as the host country’s proxies is like playing with fire. These groups have their own agenda of imposing a reactionary medieval system with the force of arms. Those hoping to reform them through talks are living in a world of fantasy.

The events in Iraq are likely to provide encouragement to the Afghan Taliban and their Pakistani counterparts. Both are likely to join hands after the departure of the foreign troops. The only way to maintain peace and bring prosperity in the region is for Pakistan and Afghanistan to jointly hunt out the militants and focus on promoting mutual economic and social cooperation.