Are the Americans sincere in translating their loud vows into reality that they will leave Afghanistan in 2014?
ISLAMABAD: President Barack Obama in his book, Audacity of Hope beautifully described various interventions and conflicts by the US in the internal affairs of other countries after World War II, while summing up the events leading to the Vietnam War. He mentioned the disastrous impact of the Vietnam War which created a great gulf and distrust between the American people and their government. He stated that consequent upon receipt of a large number of dead bodies from the war zone and aggressive exposure by the media, people realised that the “best and brightest in Washington did not always know what they were doing — and did not always tell the truth”.
The then Senator Obama, now having become the President himself, has witnessed a decade insurmountable war in Afghanistan. Pertinent questions arise in one’s mind such as: are the most wise and experienced members of his administration well conversant with what they were doing and do they tell the truth about solving an intricate and complex Afghan problem.
Are they sincere in translating their loud vows into reality that they will leave Afghanistan in 2014, and leave the region a better and safer place to live in, as promised?
Raja Shafaat Ullah
Published in The Express Tribune, October 11th, 2011.
