We never learn from history

Sir: After September 11, 2001, why did the US return to Afghanistan? The answer is, to clean up the mess they created after leaving Afghanistan to its fate in the late 1980s. Is history going to repeat itself post-2014 after the US leaves again? Yes, because as usual no one has learnt any lessons from history. All the indicators show that the post-2014 Afghan script will be even bloodier than what the world watched in horror in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. After a merciless fight between the so-called Mujahideen factions for the spoils of war, the rise of the Taliban led to a civil war between Pashtun religious zealots and non-Pashtun ethnic groups. How the Afghan Taliban, while controlling a chunk of country with tactical support from the Pakistani Taliban, are going to impact the security of this entire region does not require a great deal of thought — indeed the writing is on the wall. Post-2014 Afghanistan is going to be drowned in blood, lawlessness, and murder of ethnic and religious minorities and anyone raising their voice for the rights of women and girls. That’s why a number of American and NATO commanders, who have led the war in Afghanistan, are trying to convince the US and her allies to not entirely abandon Afghanistan. After General Stanley McChrystal and ex-defence secretary Robert Gates, now British General Lord Richards has also voiced his concern on the possible destruction of whatever has been gained in the last decade in terms of gender equality, religious and ethnic harmony, and the country’s stability. It will be on the west’s conscience if ordinary Afghans, especially women, are again caught in a never ending cycle of bloodshed, hostility, gender inequality, and injustice in the name of tribal and religious customs. If the west fails to act today, I am sure it won’t be long before we are discussing another intervention, but this time to save the whole region from the ruthless clutches of Taliban leaders sitting in the Presidential Palace in Kabul. But it is said that the only lesson we learn from history is that we never learn from history.

MASOOD KHAN
Jubail
Saudi Arabia