Chris Alexander
Published: 29 Jul 2021, 05:13 pm
Supporters of the Taliban carry their signature white flags after the Taliban said they seized the Afghan border town of Spin Boldaka across from the town of Chaman, Pakistan on July 14, 2021. (Photo: THE GLOBE AND MAIL)
US
President Joe Biden said he was ending the “forever war in Afghanistan” when he
announced US forces would leave the country this summer. Almost immediately,
the Taliban went on a vicious spree: taking districts, banning women from work,
attacking girls’ schools and reportedly forcing unmarried women to wed Taliban
fighters.
These
terrorist foot soldiers are merely the latest recruits, fresh cannon fodder,
for Pakistan’s forever war in Afghanistan, which started with General Muhammad
Zia-ul-Haq’s coup in 1977 and isn’t ending now. With US and Saudi support, Zia
fought the Soviet occupation. His successors set up al-Qaeda at Peshawar in
1988 as a recruiting sergeant and piggy bank for terrorists.
Even
after the attacks on Sept. 11, Pakistan’s military sheltered Osama bin Laden,
while relaunching the Taliban as a fighting force.
Since
2001, Pakistan’s proxy war has killed at least 120,000 Afghans and 3,500 US and
allied soldiers. They have ignored the UN sanctions on al-Qaeda and the
Taliban, while remaining (along with Iran) the world’s leading state sponsor of
terrorism. While publicly espousing peace and arguing “no military solution was
possible in Afghanistan,” Pakistan has covertly marshalled proxy forces for the
all-out offensive now under way. In other words, Pakistan has abused the trust
of the whole world.
So
far, Mr. Biden has put off any reckoning with Pakistan, which he knows to be a
crucial arena in the contest between democracy and authoritarianism. A decade
ago, failure to enforce “red lines” or prevent genocide in Syria emboldened
Russian President Vladimir Putin to occupy eastern regions of Ukraine – a
country whose independence and identity he now seeks to erase.
Ukraine
and Afghanistan – two countries facing invasion by larger neighbours with
imperial delusions – may decide the future of democracy today. General
Zia-ul-Haq’s successor as Pakistan’s Chief of the Army Staff, General Javed
Qamar Bajwa, is still obsessed with “strategic depth” – proxy war in
Afghanistan leading to influence in Central Asia to assuage the loss of East
Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in 1971.
And
so, with the American withdrawal, Afghanistan appears poised to face this
“endless war” alone. But for a number of reasons, General Bajwa is unlikely to
succeed. First, to wreck Syria, Mr. Putin only had to prop up Mr. Assad – to
conquer Afghanistan, Pakistan’s protégés have to go through 33 Taliban-loathing
provincial capitals, plus Kabul.
Second,
with the Taliban still a sanctioned terrorist entity and Pakistan already
committing an “act of aggression” under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, the
machinery of international law and international peace and security can swing
quickly into action against them.
Third,
the strongest voices opposing this new round of proxy war are in Pakistan
itself. They include member of the National Assembly Mohsin Dawar, respected
elder statesmen Afrasiab Khattak and Farhatullah Babar, and Pashtun Tahafuz
(Protection) Movement leader Manzoor Pashteen.
Fourth,
as the Afghanistan issue is reframed in terms of Pakistan’s proxy war, it will
be up to democracies to break the logjam in the peace process, especially with
its “Troika Plus” (China, Iran, Pakistan and Russia) compromised by genocide,
proxy wars and invasion.
Fifth,
after 20 years of co-operation under UN, NATO and development umbrellas, the
world is unlikely to turn its back on Afghanistan.
Sixth,
with Mr. Putin’s coterie facing severe sanctions, and Pakistan’s invasion
exposed, the case for parity is hard to escape: Pakistan’s proxy warriors
should also face sanctions.
The
only way to stop the assassination squads – all operatives of Pakistan’s
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) – now terrorizing Afghan civilians, or to
save villages from further brutal violence, is concerted international
diplomatic and political action to shut down Pakistan’s proxy war. We need to
take the same firm action now that leading democracies took after Ukraine was
invaded seven years ago.
Russia’s
Putin and Pakistan’s Bajwa are neocolonial bullies with post-Cold War hangovers
and irredentist agendas. The heart of Asia deserves principled diplomacy to
stop them just as much as the heart of Europe does.
Mr.
Biden’s personal pique – he has been opposed to the Afghan mission for over a
decade – need not define the world’s deeper commitment to peace and justice in
Afghanistan, leaving ample scope for statesmanship.
As a charter member of the UN and NATO that has known invasion by neighbours, a champion of international law with a feminist foreign policy, and one of Afghanistan’s leading partners for two decades, Canada should take the diplomatic lead. Afghans must be spared another generation of violence, obscurantism and death.
This article was published in THE GLOBE AND MAIL. Chris Alexander, the author of the article, was Canada’s ambassador to Afghanistan, the UN deputy special representative of the secretary-general for Afghanistan, Canada’s Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.